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Placebo effect works even without deception, says study
Researchers found that placebo pills benefited patients, even when doctors explained that they were only taking sugar pills. Photo/FILE
Could you be healed by the power of a placebo drug—even when you know it’s a fake?
It might sound strange to some, but a new study published in the most recent issue of PLoS One may have turned the conventional idea of a placebo on its head.
Researchers found that placebo pills benefited patients, even when doctors explained that they were only taking sugar pills.
“Until now, doctors have thought they had to lie about the placebo pill in order to tap into the effects,” said Dr Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Centre in Boston. “But we said, ‘Let’s see if placebos can work when they’re applied in an honest way.’”
And, according to this study, it seems they did.
Researchers divided 80 study participants who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, into two groups.
One group received no treatment for their condition while the other received sugar pills that they took twice a day.
Three weeks later, 59 percent of study participants who knowingly took the placebos reported reduced symptoms and adequate relief for their IBS symptoms, while only 35 per cent of the control group reported similar results.
ABC
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