> Worse yet, I recall a study that found placebos are actually getting better over time.
I think that was just a Jonah Lehrer thing. (I.e. his article The Truth Wears Off in The New Yorker.) What's actually happening is more likely that if a new class of drugs makes it onto the market and becomes popular enough, then it eventually gets studied by people who don't have an economic incentive in 'proving' that the drug is actually effective.
Once you stop cherry picking the subjects of the trials, covering up bad data, and using dubious statistical methods, the drugs start looking much less effective than they did originally.
I think that was just a Jonah Lehrer thing. (I.e. his article The Truth Wears Off in The New Yorker.) What's actually happening is more likely that if a new class of drugs makes it onto the market and becomes popular enough, then it eventually gets studied by people who don't have an economic incentive in 'proving' that the drug is actually effective.
Once you stop cherry picking the subjects of the trials, covering up bad data, and using dubious statistical methods, the drugs start looking much less effective than they did originally.