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Cited by 401Pain Management and Placebo EffectMedicine, History, and PhilosophyEmpathy and Medical Education

Meaning Medicine and the “Placebo Effect”

Moerman, Daniel E.·2002·Cambridge University Press eBooks
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511810855
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Abstract

Daniel Moerman presents an innovative and enlightening discussion of human reaction to the meaning of medical treatment. Traditionally, the effectiveness of medical treatments is attributed to specific elements, such as drugs or surgical procedures, but many things happen in medicine which simply cannot be accounted for in this way. The same drug can work differently when presented in different colours; drugs with widely advertised names can work better than the same drug without the name; inert drugs (placebos, dummies) often have dramatic effects on people (the 'placebo effect'); and effects can vary hugely among different European countries where the 'same' medical condition is understood differently, or has different meanings. This is true for surgery as well as for internal medicine. This lively 2002 book reviews and analyses these matters in lucid, straightforward prose, guiding the reader through a very complex body of literature, leaving nothing unexplained but avoiding any over-simplification.

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Crossref · 10.1017/cbo9780511810855

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  • The specific response is the patient's response to biological, chemical, or physical intervention.

    “Second is the patient's 'specific response' to biological, chemical, or physical intervention.”

    From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002

  • The autonomous response is the patient's ability to recover spontaneously, and abnormal conditions of the body tend to regress to the mean, with organic systems tending toward homeostasis.

    “What Moerman calls the 'autonomous response' is the patient's ability to recover spontaneously. As Moerman puts it, abnormal conditions of the body tend to regress to the mean.”

    From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002

  • Moerman's analysis makes clear that efficacy in health care, the response of the patient to therapy, includes several distinct things.

    “Moerman, a medical anthropologist and expert on ethnopharmacy, makes it clear that efficacy in health care-the response of the patient to therapy-includes several distinct things.”

    From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002

  • Moerman's survey of drug experiments for ulcers and hypertension shows great national differences between the US, Germany, and Brazil, for both drug and placebo, and the variation in placebo effectiveness carries over to the drug healing rate.

    “Moerman's survey of drug experiments for ulcers and hypertension show great national differences between the US, Germany, and Brazil, for both drug and placebo. The variation in placebo effectiveness, as always, 'carries over to the drug healing rate'.”

    From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002

  • Endless confusion has arisen because the placebo itself, an inert substance, cannot be what causes the physiological changes; what causes them is the body's autonomous processes or the personal meaning of the circumstances to the patient.

    “In fact, endless confusion has arisen because the placebo itself-an inert substance, from the narrowly pharmacodynamic point of view that rigorous experimentalists insist upon-obviously cannot be what causes the physiological changes.”

    From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002

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Authors
Moerman, D. E.
Affiliations
University of Michigan–Dearborn (US)
Corresponding author
Moerman, Daniel E.
ORCID
Moerman, Daniel E.
Venue
Cambridge University Press eBooks
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
2002-10-17
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511810855
OpenAlex
W4229693527
Cited by
401
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 29
FWCI
6.34
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 3519 d)
Locations
  • Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
  • DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
Keywords
placebo effect, placebo response, patient expectations

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