Placebo, Suggestion, Research and Health

Catalog description

This course provides a foundation for understanding the history and science of placebo effects with a focus on how these effects influence research design, therapeutics and health. A model of placebo effects – comprised of conditioning, expectation, social influence, and paradigm – is developed and applied to both health and common diseases in order to recognize that all health interventions are at least placebos. The question is whether they are anything more. The course structure and process include assigned readings, quizzes, creative class projects, studying advertisements, hearing from pharmaceutical company representatives, and class discussion designed to provoke critical thinking.