BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39535.344201.BE, (Published 3 April 2008)

Editorials

What is the placebo worth?

The doctor-patient relationship is a crucial part of its value

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

George Bernard Shaw described a miracle as "an event that creates faith." Belief is a powerful tool, and many factors influence it. A recent study testing pain relief from analgesics showed that merely telling people that a novel form of codeine they were taking (actually a placebo) was worth $2.50 (£1.25; 1.58) rather than 10 cents increased the proportion of people who reported pain relief from 61% to 85.4%.¹ When the "price" of the placebo was reduced, so was the pain relief. A meta-analysis of decades of clinical trials proposed that the placebo effect was more hype than reality.² However, the resulting backlash against it has had the implicit effect of clarifying what is best practice with regard to the placebo.³

Hovering over much of the research is a practical question for clinicians—what does all this mean for patient care? In the accompanying randomised controlled trial, Kaptchuk and colleagues undertake . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5718, USA, ² Department of the History of Science, Science Center 371, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

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