Placebos Don't Cure Anything

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In Newberg and Waldman's response to Steve Salerno (Forum, Vol. 15 No. 2), there was a glaring error. They said "placebos can cure, on the average, 30% of the majority of physical and emotional diseases" This is so false it is laughable. Placebos can't "cure" any disease. The very definition of placebo is that it has no active ingredient capable of curing of even mitigating disease. Placebos can elicit a response where patients report less pain and other subjective symptoms. Placebos can be used in double blind research to help determine the effectiveness of test treatments. Placebos do not produce any objective effects on cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, infections, or any other disease. …