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The placebo: from specificity to the non-specific and back1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Michael Shepherd
Michael Shepherd*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
2Address for correspondence: Professor Michael Shepherd, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
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Synopsis

A brief historical outline is provided of the concept of specificity in biology and medicine. The advent of scientifically based therapeutics, and especially clinical pharmacology, has directed increasing attention to the role of non-specific factors in the field of mental disorders. The actions and effects of placebos are discussed in relation to the specific/non-specific dichotomy with particular reference to both pharmacological and psychological modes of treatment.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , August 1993 , pp. 569 - 578
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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Footnotes

1

Based on a lecture delivered at the 50th Anniversary International Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in New York City, 1992.

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