Placebo Junkies Page 23

  Acknowledgments

  Writing Placebo Junkies involved some of the most extensive and most outlandish research that I have ever conducted for a book; I remain surprised that my Internet search history alone didn’t trigger some sort of legal intervention. Due to the subject matter, I can’t name or properly thank most of those who provided me with data, insight, and personal stories. From the CRO employees who provided inside information both damning and exculpatory, to the physicians who answered my bizarre questions with only a mild eyebrow raise, to the individuals who told me about their own volunteer experiences, to the heavily inked and pierced cashier at the grocery store who cheerfully answered my questions about body modification every time I shopped—please know that you are appreciated! I’ll break my policy of source discretion only to thank my retired-radiologist father—mostly for not calling the authorities on any of the many occasions when I asked questions about how one might go about tampering with an MRI machine or the mechanics of spinal injections gone wrong. …

  I can, however, name some of the good people who helped this book come into existence on the publishing side. Many thanks to my agent, Jessica Regel, and my editor, Katherine Harrison, for taking a chance and championing the strange little nugget of an idea and a voice that only later grew into a proper book. Thank you to Ray Shappell for noticing that my title had just the right number of letters to fit on a couple of pillboxes and designing an amazing cover around that concept. Much appreciation to Iris Broudy, Artie Bennett, and Alison Kolani for saving me many times over with their copyediting magic. (Was it terribly immature of me to snicker a little whenever I read your utterly professional corrections to things like my improper habit of writing douchebag as one word?) Thanks also to Heather Kelly for tackling some complex interior design issues, and to managing editor Dawn Ryan for her support!