The pharmaceutical industry faces a stiff challenge from a drug that has no actual chemical effect on the human body – the unpredictable placebo effect. A placebo is nothing but an inert sugar pill, which is given with fake medical intervention. This effect can be produced by using mock surgeries, electrical sham treatments and pills. It can also be produced by communicating false information about a disease. This false information assures improvement to a disease or medical condition. Placebos are part of clinical trials where patients are given sham treatment to know if the disease is “real” or psychosomatic. The pharmaceutical industry produces drugs, spending millions of dollars and considerable amount of time, only to be beaten in the clinical trial stages by a placebo. Placebos in certain situations have performed much better than the drug in question and doctors swear by their virtues.
Placebos have been known to treat various conditions such as depression, pain, eyesight, Parkinson’s disease, cancer and inflammatory disorders. Surprisingly these treatments are in completely different areas of medicine that makes the effect of a placebo much harder to discover. What is the exact medical effect for something that has no chemical ability to cure complex conditions? The pharmaceutical industry has just begun to scratch the surface of the benefits of a placebo. Even though a placebo has no effect on any part of the human body, it is believed that placebos have a profound effect on the conscious belief of the patient. This conscious belief associates with the sub-conscious experiences of being cured. The pharmaceutical industry has been trying to use the effect of these placebos along with real medicine to cure diseases more effectively. The placebo effect can be further maximized to increase the treatment and give a permanent cure to certain diseases. Since the treatment is through the active processes in the mind, it has minimal side effects.