> A physiological problem in the mind can cause a chemical problem in the brain which can cause a ‘physical’ problem in the body. Or heal a problem in the body.
Unless my particular pathways are different and I respond to placebos differently than another population.
You're not wrong that it's well established that there's some effect, but beyond that, it's barely science until we can map these pathways.
I don't really find this distinction useful - essentially it comes down to definitions. It's not a treatment that is well understood in the way that some physiological mechanisms may be understood, but trick is an overloaded term and the persisting feeling that it is a trick may well be dampening furthering our knowledge in this space.
In any case after studying some pharmacology, my takeaway really was that "understand" is a pretty relative term - biochemistry is insanely complex and medical chemistry is a pretty fuzzy thing when it boils down to it...
Unless my particular pathways are different and I respond to placebos differently than another population.
You're not wrong that it's well established that there's some effect, but beyond that, it's barely science until we can map these pathways.
So it's still a 'trick'.