Nocebo effects

Here's a nice post on some of the latest research on nocebo effects --the placebo's evil twin.

Are Warnings About the Side Effects of Drugs Making Us Sick? | NeuroTribes

I haven't looked into the nocebo effects for pain in too much detail. But I've profited immensely from carefully working through the placebo effect literature. I expect this could be similarly useful, especially in the differences between placebos and nocebos

I'd love to hear about any good philosophical work on nocebos.

The Strange Powers of the Placebo Effect

Some of the interesting features of the placebo effect:

Open placebos

By now I'm sure you've all heard the exciting news: Placebos work even if the patients know that they are taking placebos!
At least in a controlled study. Where their doctors give them lots of attention. Where they, as participants in a study, may be hoping that the 'treatment' works. When they've been told that science says placebos can work. Et cetera....

No need for me to recapitulate the debates. Instead, links!
The original paper, Placebos Without Deception

Steve Silberman, author of the awesome Wired magazine article on placebos, has a nice rundown here.

I suppose you can guess Respectful Insolence's Orac's take from his introduction of the topic

The investigators, led by Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk of Harvard's Osher Research Center. The Osher Center, for those of you not familiar with it, is Harvard's center of quackademic medicine; only this time they seem to be trying to do some real research into placebo effects.

Skepticism aplenty there.

Ed Young likes the study a bit better.

Placebo effect video

Here's a nice summary of some of the current understanding of the placebo effect. I'm also a fan of the fact that the efficacy of a placebo pill increases with the geometric complexity of its shape.

Also, the point at the end about using the research on placebos is bolstered by research on the nocebo effect -where contextual cues make the condition worse (though the nocebo effect lacks much of the placebo effect's nuance).