| I do hope people do not take this joke seriously. On a more serious note, medicine has a general problem dealing with the mind. The "placebo effect" is just one case where this manifests itself, but in case of drugs at least this effect can be scientifically measured. In case of psychosomatic ilnesses (e.g. ilnesses which manifest with real symptoms, but the underlying cause is in the mind) it is much harder to quantify anything. How do you create a control group, if each person is so different? There is no way to "look inside the mind", no universal way to influence the mind. Having gone through several ilnesses which (as I later discovered) were psychosomatic, I know the issue first-hand. Doctors tend to avoid even considering the mind's role, just as if we were simple machines, with the mind completely separate. On one hand this annoys me, on the other hand I understand them: a doctor is supposed to deal only with what is measurable and quantifiable. Cause and effect should both be measurable. I've noticed that the number of articles about placebo effects, mind-caused ilnesses and psychosomatic problems in general seems to be increasing. I'm glad this is happening, as we definitely need more research done on these kinds of problems and we need to find ways to deal with them. From what I can see around me (now that I know about psychosomatic illnesses), many people suffer from them, and only deal with the symptoms. |