You Could Have Fooled Me

摘要

The "placebo effect" may work even if patients know they are taking fake pills, a new clinical trial suggests. Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues gave either a placebo or no pill to 80 people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). All subjects were told that placebos contain no active ingredient but can have a powerful effect because the body responds to them "like Pavlov's dogs" to a bell.