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Narrative Magazine (US) invites entries for their First-Person Contest. First prize: US$3,000. All entries considered for publication.Open to international writers. Seeks short stories, short short stories, novel excerpts, essays, memoirs, and excerpts from book-length nonfiction written in the first-person point of view. Length: 8000 words max. Looking for works that engage with the world beyond the self. Strong narrative a must. Entry fee: US$20 (includes access to Narrative Backstage). Deadline: July 31, 2008. More details...

This morning we presented a post from R. Barker Bausell, author of Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine , in which he argues that the placebo effect has as much healing power as alternative medicine. Below, in an excerpt from Bausell’s book, we learn about the history of the use of placebos in scientific research.

…The placebo effect itself escaped serious scientific scrutiny until 1955, having largely been considered prior to that time to be more a part of medical lore (or physician mystique) than a documented clinical entity. (more…)

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The debate regarding the healing potential of alternative and complementary medicine can be a heated one. In his book, Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine Barker Bausell, professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, dissects alternative medicine practices, and finds that much of their healing powers lie in the placebo effect. In the post below, he takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the battle between alternative medicine and the placebo effect.

One of the many daunting tasks I faced in writing Snake Oil Science: the Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine was to compare the biological plausibility of the theories supporting the analgesic effects of alternative medical therapies with that of their chief rival, the placebo effect. (more…)

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