Medical hypotheses
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Three separate but related ideas build on van Deventer's concept of the "meta-placebo" effect in which placebo effects are hypothesized to help patients even when patients know they are receiving a placebo. First, a method is proposed to experimentally validate the meta-placebo effect without lying to experimental subjects. ⋯ The final section proposes that patients might be able to experience enough placebo- and -curabo-related treatment elements to gain a beneficial effect without either a pill or a doctor. Instead, simply having the knowledge that one can derive medical benefit from placebo, meta-placebo, and -curabo treatments, and without medicine, might in itself suffice to cause some to feel better: the hypothesized meta-meta-placebo and -curabo (or "meta-bo," for short) effect.