23. Is the Placebo Effect for Real?

In the newest show from the Freakonomics Radio Network, host Zachary Crockett explores the hidden side of the things around us. This week: One creature’s trash is another’s cash. (Or, how one man found profit in pee.) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com ... Show More

A sneak peek at Bapu's new book, Random Acts of Medicine, available now from Doubleday, and an announcement about the show. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. 

Couples get divorced for all kinds of reasons. Is having kids one of them? Bapu talks about research that investigates what happens to parents who unexpectedly have twins. Plus, an announcement about the future of the show. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswiz ... Show More

Should your doctor prescribe a placebo for you, instead of conventional medicine? And if she did, would it work? Is the double-blind placebo-controlled paradigm really the gold standard for medical research? Placebos are the most widely used treatments in the history of medicine. ... Show More

<p>In medicine, it’s long been recognised that a placebo, a sham medicine or treatment, can have a powerful positive effect on a patient’s health. Part of that effect relies on a person’s belief that an inactive substance or treatment (for example, a sugar pill) is in fact an act ... Show More

The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which a person's symptoms or well-being improve after receiving a fake treatment that has no specific or intrinsic effect on their condition. For example, a person may feel less pain after taking a sugar pill that they believe is a painkille ... Show More

<p>The placebo effect is pretty freaky when you think about it: just believing that a harmless substance is a medicine can really produce measurable benefits. It sounds crazy, but the placebo effect is real, and its implications continue to fascinate scientists. So why does it ap ... Show More

For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them. Not anymore: You can give patients placebos, tell them they’re on sugar pills, and they still might feel better. No one is sure how this works, but it raises a question: Shoul ... Show More

In this episode, I discuss placebo and belief and mindset effects — all of which exert a powerful and real influence on our biology and psychology. I discuss how your beliefs and expectation that a certain outcome will occur after taking a substance (or any intervention cause gen ... Show More

Um Placebo-Effekte einer medikamentösen Therapie zu nutzen, braucht es nicht unbedingt Placebo-Tabletten. Vielmehr sollte die positive Erwartungshaltung systematisch genutzt werden. Darüber spricht die Neurologin Professor Ulrike Bingel im „ÄrzteTag"-Podcast, dem Podcast der Ärzt ... Show More

Nigeria has seen a small number of Covid -19 cases, largely spread amongst the most affluent, people who travel abroad, However there is concern about the potential of the virus to spread to overcrowded slum areas. In such conditions social distancing measures would be difficult ... Show More