Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: medicine and literature

  • Placebo effect or care effect? Four examples from the literary world

    Pekka Louhiala, D.Med.Sci., PhD Hjelt Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland  Raimo Puustinen, MD, PhD, FT School of Medicine, University of Tampere, Finland It is common knowledge that patients may exhibit improvement following an encounter in which no specific drugs or effective medications were prescribed. Indeed, even fictional doctors have often been depicted as knowing that…