Why do placebos work? Scientists identify key brain pathway

Re:Why do placebos work? Scientists identify key brain pathway by lotsofpulp on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:42PM (#29028812)

> The fact that you don't want to consider someone's 20 year battle with chronic back pain, or neuropathy, or any other chronic condition, to be "an objective malady" doesn't make you the arbiter of what's real and what isn't.

Objective means measurable, definable, quantifiable. It has nothing to do with real or not. The human body is so complex with so many possibilities, I find it uninteresting to speculate about unknowns, hence restricting my request to what I am interested in.

Dying is an objective condition observable by others, so it piqued my interest as to how it was determined someone died due to a nocebo.

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Re:Why do placebos work? Scientists identify key brain pathway by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday October 28, 2021 @02:05PM (#29029137)

Most/many chronic conditions cannot be measured, defined, or quantified. The sufferer can give you some estimate on some scale that you describe that relates to the intensity and nature of their experiences.

I'm very glad to have seen an increasing number of health care professionals say things along the lines of "we have no idea what is causing their experience, and in fact, we think most it may be entirely psychogenic, but that doesn't change the fact that this is what they are actually experiencing, and that's as real for them as a puncture wound or an infection."

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