The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Meaning Medicine and the “Placebo Effect”
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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In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“Sham surgery works even better than injection, and 'high-powered machines with snappy names . . . may be at the top of the heap'.”
From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002
In the citing paper
“They find no significant correlation between personality traits and response.”
From The Question of Efficacy (2015) · cites this paper as Moerman 2002
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Metadata
- 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
- 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
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › 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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