Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 1999 Jun; 24(2): 107-16.

The third therapeutic revolution: behavioral medicine.

Basmajian JV.

Chedoke Rehabilitation Centre, Hamilton, ON, Canada.

Behavioral medicine--and one of its progenitors, biofeedback--are expanding as the Third Therapeutic Revolution, supplementing surgery and pharmacology in treating human illnesses. Parallel development of nonscience-based therapies is a part of the same revolution. Labeling their positive results as "placebo effects" hides a greater truth: faith and trust play an enormous role in therapy. The successes of both behavioral medicine and unorthodox complementary medicine are the result of the debonafide effect (my Latin for "from good faith"). Readers are urged to adopt this better definition of the "unexplicable" and substantial good results of both the placebos in research and the ministration of unorthodox treatments.