By now we’ve all heard about the placebo affect:­ just by thinking a pill will help cure what ails you, it often does. Well, it turns out doctors sometimes take advantage of the placebo affect. Yes, doctors - at least doctors in Chicago - occasionally purposely prescribe placebos. That’s according to a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

About a third of the doctors told patients that the pills might help and certainly won’t hurt. About 20 percent simply tell them that it’s medicine. So even though prescribing placebos remains controversial, clearly some docs are doing it. Decades ago, physicians prescribed placebos to distinguish who had a real problem and who was faking it. Today, they recognize the reality of the mind-body connection, and that placebos can sometimes be just what the doctor ordered. - "Docs Make Fake Pills Real Meds," 4 Jan. 2008

Optimists are no longer alone in promoting "mind over matter." A compelling study claims there is chemical credence for the placebo effect, at least in masking pain. - "Placebo Power," Nov. 2005

Yet, even after 40 years [since researchers began studying it], big questions remain about the interplay of psychological and physiological mechanisms that contribute to the placebo effect. Today's brain imagery techniques do lend support, though, to the theory that thoughts and beliefs not only affect one's psychological state, but also cause the body to undergo actual biological changes. - "The Healing Power of Placebos," Jan-Feb 2000

... One set of researchers has found that the anxiety-relieving drug diazepam doesn't work unless patients know they are taking it.

Similarly, morphine is significantly more effective when people are told they are being given it. In both cases the placebo effect is critical to the drug's effectiveness ...

It turns out that a patient's state of mind, awareness of their condition and expectations of the care they are about to receive can influence pretty much every facet of medicine ... - "Why the placebo effect is rewriting the medical rulebook," 20 Aug. 2008

... As Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School in Boston points out. "Often, an active drug is not better than placebo in a standard trial, even when we can be confident that the active drug does work," he says.

In a study published in April, [Dr. Kaptchuk's] team compared three "treatments" for irritable bowel syndrome. One group got sham acupuncture and lots of attention. The second group also got sham acupuncture, but no attention. A third group of patients just got left on a "waiting list". Patients in both sham acupuncture groups did better than those kept on the fake waiting list.

... Knowing you are getting a placebo does not necessarily stop it working.

Doctors, however, are not hanging around waiting for the results of rigorous studies that show whether or not placebos can be used effectively and ethically for specific conditions. Surveys suggest around half of doctors regularly prescribe a placebo and that a substantial minority do so not just to get patients out of the consulting room but because they believe placebos produce objective benefits. - "The power of the placebo effect," 20 Aug. 2008