This is really hard to believe. You’re all familiar with the placebo effect, I imagine. Patients engaged as subjects in a study to test the effectiveness of a new medication routinely receive one of two regimens: half get the actual medicine; half get a placebo that looks like the real thing but contains no medication. If the medicine is effective, of course, the half that got it get better. But just as often, the half that took the placebo also achieve some improvement in their condition because they believed they were taking medication that could cure them.

It has always been assumed that the patients’ belief that they were receiving curative doses contributed to their healing. But a new study suggests that even patients who are told they’re receiving the placebo can be cured. Let me say that again. Study participants who are told they’re taking useless pills nonetheless gain a therapeutic benefit from participating in the study.

Which prompts me to ask, if participation is the key and the pill is useless, couldn’t I swallow a button instead of a pill and still be cured? Or better yet, couldn’t I eat a cheeseburger each time I was supposed to take a pill?

Here’s the story from the December 27, 2010 New York Times.