When Pretending Is the Remedy

Skeptical, Benjamin Franklin and French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier simulated one of Mesmer’s typical sessions in 1784. They asked people suffering from ailments ranging from asthma to epilepsy to hug “magnetized” trees. The people swooned and shook, as expected. But then the researchers divulged that the trees were never magnetized. And everyone realized that something else was inducing the reactions to the trees. That something was later dubbed the placebo effect. In the centuries since, the placebo response— that is, the beneficial result in a patient from an inert substance or bogus procedure—has emerged repeatedly in many forms. Researchers have shown that sugar pills reverse insomnia, fake injections relieve pain and sham surgeries treat Parkinson’s disease. Responses to such dummy treatments can be surprisingly powerful. Studies on placebos for depression show, for example, that they can reproduce more than 80 percent of the positive effects of antidepressants. That potential power has motivated a growing cadre of researchers to study the placebo, backed by an abundance of support from federal agencies, foundations, pharmaceutical companies and advocates for alternative health. “Right now we are overfunded,” says Ted J. Kaptchuk, director of the newly launched Program in Placebo Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “We have a lot of NIH projects. We are actively courting the pharmaceutical industry, and we have no problem getting entry.” One big challenge, however, is that placebo responses remain unpredictable. People given the same Scientists are dissecting the placebo effect in hopes of deploying its active ingredients as treatments l By Trisha Gura When pretending is the remedy