Kirsch Irving
Faculty of Health and Social Work, University of Plymouth, UK.
J Clin Psychol. 2005 Jul;61(7):791-803. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20126.
Contrary to some recent claims, the placebo effect is real and in some cases very substantial. Placebo effects can be produced or enhanced by classical conditioning, but consistent with virtually all contemporary conditioning theories, these effects are generally mediated by expectancy. Expectancy can also produce placebo effects that are inconsistent with conditioning history. Although expectancy also plays an important role in psychotherapy outcome, the logic of placebo-controlled trials does not map well onto psychotherapy research. The idea of evaluating the efficacy of psychotherapy by controlling for nonspecific or placebo factors is based on a flawed analogy and should be abandoned.
与最近的一些说法相反，安慰剂效应是真实存在的，并且在某些情况下非常显著。安慰剂效应可以通过经典条件作用产生或增强，但与几乎所有当代条件作用理论一致的是，这些效应通常由预期介导。预期也可以产生与条件作用历史不一致的安慰剂效应。虽然预期在心理治疗结果中也起着重要作用，但安慰剂对照试验的逻辑并不能很好地适用于心理治疗研究。通过控制非特异性或安慰剂因素来评估心理治疗疗效的想法基于一个有缺陷的类比，应该被摒弃。
