Re: traģiski
informatīvākais, ko es pēdējā laikā lasīju, bija intervija ar placebo pētnieku; tur ir arī teksta versija. viņš piemin placebo un dzīvniekus:

Dr. Campbell: Then in unconscious placebo effects, though, that are based on classical conditioning, this has been demonstrated in animals also?

Dr. Benedetti: Oh, yes; it is demonstrated in animals, as well. It is interesting that one of the first neurobiological approaches to the placebo response was published in Science in 19627. The title of the paper was, “The Biology of the Placebo Effect in the Rat.” That approach, that experiment was quite interesting, because the experimenters gave a pharmacological agent interfering with motor behavior, many times; but at a given point during the experiment they replaced the real pharmacological agent with saline solution or with distilled water. And they found the very same response as with the previous drug, interfering with motor response.

Probably this is one of the first studies to use this neurobiological approach in animals. So, in animals there are strong, powerful, robust placebo responses; but there is a main difference that in animals the mechanism is classical conditioning, is Pavlovian conditioning, it is not expectation, of course. It is very difficult to say that a rat has expectation about the therapeutic benefit. So, it is a completely unconscious mechanism.