Placebo effects should not be underestimated

Study: Placebo can effect healing

15/01/2014

American researchers from Boston examined migraine sufferers and showed how much the expectations can influence the actual effect of drug therapy. The information played a special role by the treating therapist.

The scientists showed that patients who received a placebo, which they assumed was an effective migraine remedy, experienced the same pain relief as patients who had taken a right medication, which the doctor had explained to them as drug-free. It seems that already the confidence of the patients has the same effect as the actual active ingredient.

If the migraine medicine was described by the doctors as highly effective, this doubled the analgesic effect. The authors resume: The placebo effects account for at least 50 percent of the effect. (Pm)