Research Headlines

Is the placebo effect real?

By Jeanne Sabatie, Production Editor

Not according to a report that appears in the May 24 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers reviewed data from more than 100 published studies involving some 7,500 patients with many different conditions and found little support for the placebo effect—the belief that, in general, about a third of patients will improve if they believe that the fake pill they are given is genuine medication.

Jeanne Sabatie. Is the placebo effect real?.

Business and Health

2001;6:8.