What is the placebo effect?

The placebo effect is a phenomenon where a medicine (or any other treatment) seems to temporarily work because the patient thinks it will work and wants it to work.

Doctors sometimes prescribe placebos to fend off patients that demand treatments they don't need. Placebos are also used in double-blind clinical trials; one group is given a certain treatment and the other (the "control" group) is unknowingly prescribed a placebo such as a sugar pill, for comparison.

Placebos can only temporarily seem to cure and are of no help in severe illnesses. They have been shown to be effective, to a point, for relieving insomnia, anxiety, colds, headaches and minor pain.

However, the placebo effect often comes into play in false treatments. Patients feel better because of the psychosomatic effects and the power of suggestion. They report feeling better because they want to feel better, not because of any actual change. The pill or treatment does not benefit them in and of itself; it benefits them because of their own expectations and beliefs.

The placebo effect can be a useful tool in certain situations but it is of no use in the treatment of cancer, AIDS, paralysis or any other serious ailments. It eventually wears off and fools patients into believing that they are being cured when they are not. This leads to the delay of real treatment, the only cure that has been proven to work.