A placebo of a pill added to treatment as usual for chronic low back pain resulted in clinically significant improvements in patients who were informed about the placebo beforehand, according to a new study from Portugal.
“We knew that placebos are effective for pain relief, but also that the deception assumed to be necessary for them to work constituted an ethical barrier to their use,” said co-author Irving Kirsch, PhD, associate director of the Program in Placebo Studies at Beth