At some stage most of us will have come across the notion of a placebo (from the Latin, “I shall please”) or its negative incarnation, the nocebo (“I shall harm”). From inert pharmaceuticals through to crystal healing, witchcraft, and curses, the placebo concept is often invoked in a hand-wavy manner when the causes of an effect are not well understood or are thought to be psychological. However, for decades now, placebo effects have been studied by scientists and statisticians attempting to better understand how they are produced. Such effects are the subject of much debate and controversy, and often prove surprisingly difficult to replicate.

In this episode, we talk to Dr David Teira, a professor at UNED, the Spanish Open University, who specialises in the history and philosophy of statistics. Earlier this year he published a paper in Studies C looking at placebo interventions and how the ways we study these currently limit our ability to understand and reproduce their effects.

You can read more in David Teira’s recent article Placebo trials without mechanisms: How far can they go?

Thank you for tuning in to BioViews! Keep an ear out for our next (double!) episode, where we will be looking at perspectives on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

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