Placebo effect works even though we know that the pills are fake?

Placebo effect is well known in the medical and research community since the early days of medicine, but until now it was believed that the placebo effect is only successful because patients believe that they are treated with real medicine. But a new examination of the Harvard Medical School suggests that placebo can be effective even if the people know that the medicine thy take it has no pharmacological power.

By the beginning of the 20th century, placebo was regularly given to patients who knew that this medicine cannot help. At the end of the century, however doctors have begun to question the ethical correctness of providing medical pills without pharmacological power, while telling patients to receive medication. The practice of prescribing placebo faded in recent decades (although in the 2008 study, a third of the doctors admitted they sometimes prescribe placebo to some patients). However inactive pills remained an important part of pharmacological researches.

A recent study conducted at Harvard tested the effectiveness of placebo against no treatment at all. One group of patients with irritable syndrome ( " nervous " ) colon were treated with an inactive pill and it was told that the placebo effect can improve symptoms. Another group of patients with the same syndrome were not treated at all. Only 35 percent of the untreated group of patients felt better, while 59 percent ( a significant part in a research study ) of the placebo group reported improvement in symptoms, although they knew that they are not taking a real drug.

The conclusion after examining is that the treatment of the syndrome of irritable colon with a known placebo is effective.

Further studies should reveal whether open treatment with placebo in other diseases is better than no treatment at all.