The Powerful Placebo and the Wizard of Oz - Brief Article

Bailar, John C. "The Powerful Placebo and the Wizard of Oz." The New England Journal of Medicine 344(21):1630--32, May 24, 2001. In an editorial regarding Hrobjartsson and Gorzsches's study of the placebo effect (below), Bailar--a doctor at the University of Chicago--claims the findings impressive, but the conclusions too sweeping.

As be writes, "I would not want to prescribe or receive a placebo without some reason that was far more specific than weak evidence of some general 'placebo effect."' He compares this effect to the Wizard of Oz who "was powerful because others thought he was powerful--until they found that the curtain hid a very ordinary man. He wonders if the placebo is powerful because we have yet to look behind the curtain.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group