The placebo and nocebo effect of sugar pills (Lecture by Dr. Regina Casper)
Event Details
05:00PM - 06:30PM
Map address
People can live without doctors, though not, of course, without medicine: the placebo and nocebo effect of sugar pills.
Please join us for an exciting and informative lecture by Regina Casper, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, at the H.G. Will Center.
Talk Summary
Virtually every medicine currently prescribed by a doctor has undergone testing to distinguish the pharmacological effects from the effects of suggestion by administering a placebo.
Originally, the word placebo meant a medicine given more to please than to benefit the patient. In this presentation we will review the evidence that taking inert substances, such as a placebo, can have healing as well as noxious effects and that those effects are mediated through physiological pathways. We will review the reasons for the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which has the responsibility to test the efficacy and safety of any medication on the market.
