DR JEREMY HOWICK is a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, and author of Doctor You: Introducing The Hard Science Of Self-Healing (Coronet, £9.99)
Compiled by Beth Gibbons. Photograph: Stocksy
Astudy I carried out in 2013 revealed that 97 per cent of GPs had treated a patient with a placebo at some stage in their career. Why? Sometimes it’s because a patient’s symptoms are vague and don’t respond to standard drugs; and sometimes it’s because patients will refuse to leave without a prescription for something, anything. But mostly it’s because a placebo often works.
The phenomenon in which a non-therapeutic treatment improves a patient’s condition isn’t new – doctors have been using the technique for centuries. As part of my research, I’ve reviewed hundreds of trials involving more than 15,000 patients with a range of illnesses, and can say that for some common ailments, especially pain, placebos often have almost the same effect as ‘real’ treatments.