14 DAY TRIAL // You would think that if a placebo works it's because you have no idea that it is a placebo instead of a real drug, but a new research says that telling the truth is as effective as deception.
Carried out by researchers at Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) this study shows that placebos work even when the patients are specifically told what they are taking.
Placebos are also called dummy pills, since they are normally used in clinical trials as controls for possible new medications, and even if they contain absolutely no active ingredients, patients often respond to them.
To see exactly what kind of power do placebos have, HMS associate professor of medicine Ted Kaptchuk teamed up with colleagues at BIDMC for a new study involving 80 patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The patients were divided into two groups – a control group that received no treatment at all, and a second group that was given a regimen of placebos (described honestly as being 'like sugar pills') that they had to take twice a day.
Kaptchuk said that “not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had 'placebo' printed on the bottle.
“We told the patients that they didn't have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills.”
The patients were monitored for three weeks and by the end of the trial, those taking the placebo reported adequate symptom relief (59%), compared to the control group (35%).
Even more intriguing, on other outcome measures, placebo-taking patients doubled their rates of improvement, to a level comparable to the effects of the most powerful IBS drugs.
Senior author Anthony Lembo, HMS associate professor of medicine at BIDMC and an expert on IBS said: “I didn't think it would work.
“I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo. But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them.”
Even if the results are very exciting, the authors caution that the study is rather small and limited, and the hypothesis that placebos are effective even if the patient is fully informed, needs to be tested in larger trials.
“Nevertheless, these findings suggest that rather than mere positive thinking, there may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual,” says Kaptchuk.
“I'm excited about studying this further. Placebo may work even if patients know it is a placebo.”
The study was published in PLoS ONE.