The Placebo Effect Is Real. Now Doctors Just Have To Work Out How To Use It
   Doctors could start to harness the placebo's power by making small
   In the last decade, the study of placebo has moved from the backwaters
   Placebo Studies at Harvard. NIH and nonprofits like the Robert Wood
   Johnson Foundation fund placebo work. Journals publish papers. What
   Kaptchuk, who heads Harvard's placebo program. Over 35 years, he's been
   investigating placebos, which are medical interventions without active
   "The placebo effect is brought about by much more than sugar pills and
   To Kaptchuk, the placebo effect is brought about by much more than
   patient and physician--as much as treatment itself. "The placebo effect
   where he showed that placebo could be effective even when patients knew
   the treatment was fake. (The drug bottle had a big "placebo" label on
   Kaptchuk credits the growing respectability of studying placebos down
   physiological impact in the brain when a patient takes a placebo
   susceptible to placebo treatments than others.
   the work that Kaptchuk and other placebo researchers are bringing to
   showed that many doctors are already prescribing placebos on a regular
   basis. Out of 783 doctors, 12% said they had used "pure" placebo (sugar
   pills, saline injections) while 97% had used "impure placebos"
   cure cancer. He does believe placebo research can help with conditions
   substrate to that," he says. "The placebo is going to be for things
   "Placebo is about how we improve care independent of medication. It
   medicine is, it's about finding the right drug. Placebo research begins