Michael Burman wrote: "I think no one has answered this because it is essentially correct. Classical conditioning is a likely mechanism for the placebo effect. Robert Ader gave a talk at the Pavlovian Society Meeting a couple of years back showing that the immune system in rats could be classically conditioned to respond to a CS via pairings with an immuno-suppressent drug."
I think this is incorrect. The original question was "why any classically conditioned stimulus could not be viewed as a placebo" The original question was not about the mechanism of placebos (Michael Burman's response) or some of the other issues raised by Rick and Claudia, interesting though they may be. In the traditional conditioned eye-blink response the stimulus is a puff of air. Now, could a puff of air be conditioned to produce a placebo effect (i.e. physically or psychologically beneficial response)? I suppose it's "possible", but I think unlikely. Not every pairing can be learned with equal efficacy and some presumably cannot be learned at all. (For example, a feeling of increased well-being is unlikely to be induced by severe electrical shock). Hence my original response highlighted the beneficial aspect of the placebo effect, and not every stimulus capable of inducing a classically conditioned response would result in a placebo effect. --Mike --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7650 or send a blank email to leave-7650-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
