Cultural variations in the placebo effect: Ulcers, anxiety, and blood pressure

An analysis of the control groups in double-blind trials of medicines demon strates broad variation from 0 to 100 percent-in placebo effectiveness rate s for the same treatment for the same condition. In two cases considered he re, drug healing rates covary with placebo healing rates; placebo healing i s the ultimate and inescapable "complementary medicine." Several factors ca n account for the dramatic variation in placebo healing rates, including cu ltural ones. But because variation differs by illness, large placebo effect s for one condition do not necessarily anticipate large placebo effects for other conditions as well. Deeper understanding of the intimate relationshi p between cultural and biological processes will require close ethnographic scrutiny of the meaningfulness of medical treatment in different societies .