Why do ineffective treatments seem helpful? A brief review

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Abstract

After any therapy, when symptoms improve, healthcare providers (and patients) are tempted to award credit to treatment. Over time, a particular treatment can seem so undeniably helpful that scientific verification of efficacy is judged an inconvenient waste of time and resources. Unfortunately, practitioners' accumulated, day-to-day, informal impressions of diagnostic reliability and clinical efficacy are of limited value. To help clarify why even treatments entirely lacking in direct effect can seem helpful, I will explain why real signs and symptoms often improve, independent of treatment. Then, I will detail quirks of human perception, interpretation, and memory that often make symptoms seem improved, when they are not. I conclude that healthcare will grow to full potential only when judgments of clinical efficacy routinely are based in properly scientific, placebo-controlled, outcome analysis. © 2009 Hartman; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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Hartman, S. E. (2009). Why do ineffective treatments seem helpful? A brief review. Chiropractic and Osteopathy, 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-1340-17-10

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