Placebos and Opium
If you can't afford a Browser subscription, please do email support@thebrowser.com and we'll sort things out – we don't want anyone who wants our newsletter to miss out because of money.
All Placebos Are Not Created Equal
Sam | All That Is Solid | 16th November 2021 | U
Clinical studies suggest that the placebo effect has become stronger over time in the United States: People are responding more positively to the idea of medical treatment, relative to treatment as such. In 1996 pain-relief drugs beat placebos by 27.3% in clinical trials. In 2013 the margin was down to 8.9%. It may get harder for new drugs to win FDA approval if placebos work almost as well (1,020 words)
?: Milk Of Paradise, by Lucy Inglis
via Five Books | Best History Books of 2018
The entire history of opium, and the many different ways it was consumed – as morphine, heroin, OxyContin – from Neolithic times to the current opioid epidemic. The earliest evidence of its use as a narcotic or for pain relief was in Spain around seven millennia ago. The Mughal emperor Jahangir, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker were all shaped by it (480 pages)
BROWSER CLASSIFIEDS:
Hear what you’ve been missing with Hark. Hark editors curate amazing podcast moments into playlists around your interests. Explore topics from The Dancing Plague of 1619 to Utopian Communities or Crash Course on Fermentation and Celebrating Prince.
Reach 50k+ smart, curious readers every week: Advertise in the Browser
Happy Friday! You've worked hard, now treat yourself to a Browser subscription:
Join the BrowserCaroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Associate Editor; Raymond Douglas, Associate Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director
Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com
Proudly published with Ghost, the fiercely independent website and newsletter platform