[orblivion]

> At the very least, this study tells us that the mindfulness meditation is a 'more effective' placebo than the cream.

Which leads one to consider - what is a placebo anyway? It's a mental state one puts oneself in that improves physically measurable symptoms. That seems indistinguishable to me from meditation. If you think about it, it's kind of funny that skeptics like to dismiss impressive sounding treatments as being placebos. A placebo is a pretty impressive phenomenon!

If one can reliably create a reliable, powerful treatment that actually works (fixes what you're targeting rather rather than symptoms, unless symptoms are what you're targeting as in this case) by putting ones self into a mental state, that sounds like a win, even if it does meet the definition of a placebo.

[contravariant]

I always did wonder about that. Current research implies that placebos work as long as you believe they will work, even if you know they are a placebo. But then why would you need the placebo in the first place?

There seems to be no need to do anything really, if you can just stop thinking you're feeling bad then you'll actually feel better.

In principle there's no need for any specific instructions on meditation either, but it does seem to be related to meditation where you also aim to stop thinking about certain things, so those instructions are likely to be useful, even if they only turn out to be yet another placebo. After you gain more confidence that you can do it, you should have less need for those instructions though.

[DanBC]

> Current research implies that placebos work as long as you believe they will work, even if you know they are a placebo.

It depends on the research. There's some that don't find a strong placebo response.

[dTal]

>it's kind of funny that skeptics like to dismiss impressive sounding treatments as being placebos. A placebo is a pretty impressive phenomenon!

It's not about whether a treatment works at all - it's about whether it works better than any old random thing. If it doesn't, you can hardly call it a treatment. Sure you could go "hallelujah, a new medicine!" when you find that a sugar pill provides a slight improvement, just like sand pills and empty pills and homeopathy. But you haven't actually discovered anything new.

[orblivion]

> But you haven't actually discovered anything new.

The fact that sugar pills work may not be new, but it's still pretty remarkable.

[dTal]

It may be remarkable. But it is not a property of the sugar pills.