Placebos work — even without deception
For most of us, the “placebo effect” is synonymous with the power of positive thinking; it works because you believe you’re taking a real drug. But a new study rattles this assumption. Researchers at Harvard Medical School’s (HMS) Osher Research Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that placebos work even when administered without the seemingly requisite deception. The study is published Dec. 22 in PLoS ONE. Placebos — or dummy pills — are typically used in clinical trials as controls for potential new medications. Even though placebos contain no active ingredients, patients often respond to them. In fact, data on placebos is so compelling that many American physicians (one study estimates 50 percent) secretly give placebos to unsuspecting patients. Because such “deception” is ethically questionable, HMS Associate Professor of Medicine Ted Kaptchuk teamed up with colleagues at BIDMC to explore whether the power of placebos can be harnessed honestly and...