The recent New Yorker story on a Harvard research program on placebos has generated a lot of follow-up reporting, including a segment on this week’s Science Friday on NPR.

Also, Arnold Relman responds to the story in his week’s New Yorker.  He argues that the researchers claiming placebos can cure are driven by the availability of research funding. Fighting words from the letter’s page:

There is simply no evidence that physical diseases, such as cancer, atherosclerosis, or organ disorders, can be cured or measurably improved by placebos. Experienced physicians know that sympathetic concern and reassurance can often allay subjective symptoms—at least temporarily—but only appropriate medical treatment has a chance of curing physical disease. I suspect that the main reason advocates of “alternative medicine” like Kaptchuk are receiving such a friendly reception in many leading medical schools these days is that there is substantial financial support for their anti-establishment views from one part of the National Institutes of Health and from a few very wealthy private donors.