How did ancient/ medieval doctors not know that there cures were not effective in the slightest?

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Title says it all really.

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People can recover from some injuries or illnesses on their own. If you give someone a remedy for their condition, they might get better on their own, which makes the remedy seem effective even if it’s not. Some illnesses flare up, get better, then recur later. An ineffective remedy can appear effective in this case, too. You have to have a proper control group to tell if a remedy is actually working in a situation like this.

Getting better and feeling better aren’t the same thing. Feeling better is complicated, and is affected by things like the feeling that you’re doing something about an illness. This is why, in drug trials, people often don’t know if they’re actually getting the drug or not.

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