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The Article in Brief
Placebo Effects and the Common Cold: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Bruce Barrett , and colleagues
Background This study investigates how simulated real-life conditions (not taking a pill vs taking a named known pill) compares with the conditions of a conventional randomized controlled research trial. In particular, the study assesses 2 kinds of pill-related placebo effects in treating common cold (no pill vs blinded placebo and blinded vs open-label treatment), as well as potential effects of doctor-patient interaction.
What This Study Found There are modest and nuanced effects related to receiving pills regardless of their content, especially among those who believe in a particular therapy. The 4-armed trial (no pill, placebo, echinacea blinded and echinacea unblinded), which included 719 randomized participants aged 12 to 80 years, revealed that patients randomized to the no-pill group had longer and more severe illnesses than those who received pills, regardless of the pills� content. Among those who believed in the efficacy of echinacea and received pills, illnesses were shorter and less severe, regardless of whether the pills contained echinacea.
Implications
- Based on these findings, which suggest small but meaningful effects related to expectation and pill allocation, the authors conclude that patients� beliefs and feelings about treatments should be taken into consideration when making medical decisions.