Comment on Critelli and Neumann's "The placebo."

Asserts that, in their article on the placebo effect, J. W. Critelli and K. F. Neumann (see record 1984-26517-001) failed to recognize that treatment cannot be of benefit if a patient knows that a treatment is a placebo. Critelli and Neumann's contention that placebo factors (the mere belief that improvement will result from treatment) could legitimately comprise all that is active in psychotherapy is criticized. It is argued that any therapy that succeeds only because of placebo effects will eventually lose credibility. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)