Chapter 15 - Miscellaneous neurologic conditions with a few or no available data, 2025, Benedetti and Shaibani

[Andy]

Abstract

In this chapter, we will review the available literature on the nature of the placebo effect in conditions that are not well studied in terms of their response to the placebo intervention such as fatigue in general and in the context of myasthenia gravis and chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and central conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The clinical trials are either small or lack a natural history arm or a real placebo arm, therefore no definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding the magnitude and possible mechanisms of the placebo effect in these conditions. In addition, we will review some studies in conditions other than neurology, such as cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary diseases that can be of some interest to neurologists. Overall, we know very little, if any, about the psychobiological underpinnings in these medical conditions, and this lack of knowledge must be the stimulus for the pursuit of new future research.

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[Andy]

Part of "Placebo Effects in Neurology".

 

[rvallee]

conditions that are not well studied in terms of their response to the placebo intervention such as fatigue in general and in the context of myasthenia gravis and chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and central conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The clinical trials are either small or lack a natural history arm or a real placebo arm, therefore no definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding the magnitude and possible mechanisms of the placebo effect in these conditions

Well that's just plain false, it's literally been the explicit target of most trials in illnesses where pathology is not understood. And definitive conclusions have been not just drawn but asserted and pushed coercively into treatment models that have failed miserably for decades. If we combine all the various iterations of placebo treatments, it is, in fact, the most over-studied thing in all of medicine, but especially so with many of the conditions they list here. This is as accurate as bizarrely arguing that true drug prohibition has never been tried.

Are they lying? Or confused? It's not like this is hard or confusing so it's hard to ignore the obvious explanation. To write an entire textbook on such imaginary stuff is as problematic as anything RFK Jr is doing, whatever it is.