Maladie de Ménière

Researchers have found that people can also become addicted to placebos.

One schizophrenic patient became so addicted that she consumed 10,000 dummy pills in one year. But not all placebos are pills. Danish surgeons divided patients with Meniere’s disease into two groups. 50 per cent received the standard operation, the other half were treated with a small skin incision. An equal number of patients were helped by the sham surgery.

But why had ineffective drugs worked so well in the past? Simply because television commercials claimed they were effective and millions of viewers believed them. Besides, many over-the-counter drugs are used for ailments that are self-limiting in time. So patients will get better whether they swallow a $20 drug, a sugar pill or pour themselves a scotch-and-soda.