A growing body of cross-cultural survey research shows high percentages of clinicians report using placebos in clinical settings. One motivation for clinicians using placebos is to help patients by capitalising on the placebo effect’s reported health benefits. This is not surprising, given that placebo studies are burgeoning, with increasing calls by researchers to ethically harness placebo effects among patients, and with widespread media attention on the purported potency of these effects. These calls, and media reportage, propose placebos/placebo effects that offer clinically significant benefits to patients. In this talk, I will argue many findings in this highly cited and ‘hot’ field have not been independently replicated. My goal is to motivate both increased awareness of replication issues and to help pave the way for advances in scientific research in the field of placebo studies to better inform ethical evidence-based practice. I argue that only by developing a rigorous evidence base can we better understand how if at all, placebos/placebo effects can be harnessed ethically in clinical settings.

This talk will be hosted in the Seminar Room at the Department of Psychiatry, to join virtually, please use the Zoom link below: * zoom.us/j/94457342362?pwd=bCtoSXlaSjRNejBMaXluSTMwVWdVQT09 * Meeting ID: 944 5734 2362 * Passcode: 051588