What are the advantage and disadvantage of using placebo based therapy (e.g homeopathy) vs pharmacotherapy?
Placebos tend to have less side effects than medicines, but they rely completely on the person’s belief that they will work. They have a much less consistent effect than medical drugs for that reason. Outwith homoeopathy, placebos tend to be greatly cheaper, but within alternative medicines this is rarely true. I personally believe many homoeopathic ‘medicines’ to be greatly unethical, as you are giving something to someone under false pretences (you have to, for the placebo to work). They usually offer no medical value and are highly unproven. Where a proven treatment is available, I do not see them as appropriate. There are however many people I know who swear by them and fully believe they work wonders.
