It is symbolic in addition to exclusion of biochemist, because itself exists as condition the consciousness of receiving that stimulus, attributing a therapeutic value, and wait for the change. The placebo effect is a blind spot of modern medicine. The definition of the placebo effect is highly controversial: there is no sufficient logical consistency and lack of ambiguity, and therefore more accepted definitions rely on a pragmatic basis. The Royal Academy of the Spanish language defines it as a substance which, lacking any therapeutic action, produces some curative effect on the patient, if it receives it convinced that that substance actually has such an action. But as we shall see, should not be reduced to substances, but denotes a procedure or component thereof (a physical act, a chemical substance, a verbal message); and on the other hand, if in fact produces a curative effect, do as define it because as devoid of therapeutic action?. Grunbaum has suggested the possibly most accepted definition now placebo: would be the set of incidental factors of a treatment that have therapeutic effects on the symptom or disorder diana. Incidental is understood as not characteristic, not defined as their own by an accepted theory is here, say, placebo would be all component of the therapeutic procedure used which has an effect of some kind on the same object, but that is different from scientifically validated and teorizados characteristic mechanisms that are known and accepted for this therapeutic procedure at such a moment. The paradox is that if advances knowledge and discovers that that factor has specific therapeutic properties (explainable), it is no longer a placebo.
Some authors believe that the placebo effect is basically ignorance. And it is possibly. The question is what do we know about that ignored aspect: is there some mechanism common to all placebo effects?. Myths around the placebo effect placebo allows to differentiate between organic and mental diseases: this proposal, based on the dualistic separation between the organic and the mental (questionable in itself), ignores hundreds of evidence of the effectiveness of placebo in the reduction of, for example, appropriate to a targeted organic injury pain.
