A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

A group of leading placebo researchers tracked the health of 80 volunteers with irritable bowel syndrome for three weeks as half of them took placebos and the other half didn’t. The volunteers in the placebo group knew that they were getting only inert pills — which they were instructed to take without fail, twice a day. They were also informed that, just as Ivan Pavlov trained his dogs to drool at the sound of a bell, the body could be trained to activate its own built-in healing network by the act of swallowing a pill.

The volunteers were educated on the 'placebo effect'. They also received the care and attention of clinicians, which have been found in many other studies to be crucial for getting the best from the placebo effect. The combination of the story and a supportive clinical environment were enough to prevail over the knowledge that there was really nothing in the pills. People in the placebo arm of the trial got better — clinically, measurably, significantly better — on standard scales of symptom severity and overall quality of life. In fact, the volunteers in the placebo group experienced improvement comparable to patients taking a drug called Alosetron, the standard of care for IBS.

TJ Kaptchuk, E Friedlander, JM Kelley, MN Sanchez, E Kokkotou Placebos without Deception