Placebo Prescription

Ode magazine has a great article on the Healing Power of Placebos in its current issue...

Placebos have also been proven successful in treating depression, anxiety, stress, warts and ulcers—sometimes in as many as 60 to 70 percent of the cases. People report they feel better, their appetite has increased and their general sense of well-being has improved...
Very little research has been done in this area of medicine. The pharmaceutical industry can’t profit; after all, they can’t make money from sugar pills. That is why many research funders look upon the placebo effect as an irritating variable in a study. It is often forgotten that the effect could help people and shave billions off spiralling health-care costs. If researchers could gain more insight into how the effect works, it would stand as one of the biggest medical breakthroughs in history.