It was widely thought that, for a placebo to work, doctors had to deceive patients that they were getting the real deal, and that’s problematic for a profession keen to promote informed consent.But a new study casts doubt on whether deceit is necessary at all and, along with a swag of research showing some remarkable placebo effects, raises big questions about whether placebos should now enter the mainstream as a legitimate item for doctors to prescribe.

Source: ‘Mind-body’ healing: Success of placebo trials challenges medical thinking