Placebo effects

[hatgirl]

At Octocon (OMG, so awesome! Everyone go next year!), after the The Science of Horror panel I was ranting talking to some people about the amazing, weird, complicated phenomenon known as The Placebo Effect. So here are some links on the topic:

How can you regulate doping in sport when just thinking you have been given a painkiller releases a measurable natural opiate?

• A simple-ish article on the experiment
• The original paper about the experiment
• A podcast (and pdf transcript) with the chief investigator, and discussion of his further work with patients who have Parkinson's Disease

Cool, right?!