False placebo
A false placebo is a non-placebo factor that appears to cause an improvement of a disease. False placebos differ from actual placebos in that they occur regardless of whether the patient is treated or not. False placebos are the "other" things controlled for in the placebo arms of clinical trials.
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[edit] Natural improvement
[edit] Spontaneous remission
Spontaneous remission (also known as spontaneous improvement or spontaneous regression) is a phenomenon in which an untreated disease or condition suddenly disappears for no apparent reason. Along with misdiagnosis, this is one of the ways in which alternative medicine can seem to cure diseases such as cancer.[1]
The spontaneous remission rates for cancer depend on the type: according to studies done, basal cell carcinoma and breast cancer disappear in about 20% of cases, while the rates for melanoma haven't been studied, but have been estimated to be around 10%-20%.[2][3] Autoimmune hepatitis goes into spontaneous remission in 13%-20% of cases.[4] Untreated tuberculosis goes away in approximately 29% of cases.[5][6] About 65%-75% of people with invasive group A streptococcal infections live.[7]
[edit] Regression to the mean
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Apparently Miraculous Cures: What Do They Tell Us?
- ↑ Spontaneous Regression of Melanoma May Offer Insight Into Cancer Immunology, Carrie Printz, JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (2001) 93 (14): 1047-1048.
- ↑ Study reveals surprising cancer remission rate, Dartmouth Medicine Magazine.
- ↑ Hepatitis Chronic - Medical Disability Guidelines
- ↑ How to optimize tuberculosis case finding: explorations for Indonesia with a health system model, BMC Infectious Diseases 2009, 9:87 doi:10.1186/1471-2334-9-87.
- ↑ Natural History of Tuberculosis: Duration and Fatality of Untreated Pulmonary Tuberculosis in HIV Negative Patients: A Systematic Review, PLoS ONE 6(4): e17601. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017601.
- ↑ HPA - FAQs - Group A streptococcal infections