2025 RationalWiki 'Oregon Plan' Fundraiser

There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity.

Fighting pseudoscience isn't free.
We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with PayPal Logo.png!
Donations so far: $8765.50Goal: $10000

Talk:False placebo

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Is anyone actually using this term? And how widespread it is?--ZooGuard (talk) 18:15, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

google only gets me "false placebo effect" - something thought to be a placebo effect but is actually not. Or something. Nothing about the sense that it's used in here. SophieWilder 18:40, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
SkepDic uses "false placebo", the Science-Based Medicine blog says "placebo effects".--Кřěĵ (ṫåɬк) 18:46, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
And do they really define it as "a non-placebo factor that appears to cause an improvement of a disease"? Such a definition would cover all kinds of treatments like antibiotics & chemotherapy. WèàšèìòìďWeaselly.jpgMethinks it is a Weasel 23:39, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Malaria[edit]

Doesn't malaria have a notoriously high false negative rate on even the most reliable tests, especially after initial treatment has already been administered? Abundance of caution would suggest treating patients if they've had any positive markers at any point. ikanreed 🐐Bleat at me 18:55, 22 May 2019 (UTC)