Academic Papers
Explanatory Fictions – A Reason to Believe: An enquiry into how astrology functions as a narrative construct and a comparative study of placebo effects in conventional medicine.
This dissertation was submitted for Nicola’s master’s degree in Myth, Cosmology and The Sacred at Canterbury Christchurch University in 2015. The paper deals with the way in which astrology has been used in the past and how it could potentially be used in the medical field in light of recent research into what is commonly referred to as the placebo effect.
Can success with IVF treatment following astrological advice be accounted for by the Placebo Effect?
In 2001, a study made the startling discovery that in tests 46% of subjects were unable to separate the placebo effect from established antidepressants from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) database (Laughren 2001). This is a qualitative study of the role of the placebo effect on 11 couples after a consultation with a predictive medical read more here