THE PLACEBO CURE

WHY DOCTORS ARE PRESCRIBING SUGAR PILLS INSTEAD OF THE REAL THING

- Lia Grainger

HEALTH

MICHAEL WHARRAD held the envelope in his hands, certain of what the paper inside would tell him. A decade ago, the 72-year-old, a former investment banker who lived in Kent, England, had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. For a year, he had participated in a drug trial at London's National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Researchers were testing whether a medication approved to treat type 2 diabetes could also treat Parkinson's symptoms. Every day, Wharrad had received a dose of either the drug or a placebo, but he never knew which.

During the trial, Wharrad thrived. His joints ached less, and he could get up from a chair more easily and take walks around the block. He also noticed that his memory seemed stronger. Friends and family commented on his obvious improvement. "My wife and I were convinced I was taking the drug," he says.

But at his end-of-trial meeting with one of the researchers who also didn't know whether Wharrad had been on the drug or not-he was delivered a surprise. When he opened the envelope to find out what he'd been taking, he saw the word "placebo."

"I was speechless," he says. "I had been feeling so much better."

A PLACEBO CAN BE a sugar pill, a saline injection or a glass of coloured water: inert treatments that shouldn't produce a physiological response. But they often do; Wharrad's case is not unusual. In fact, placebos are increasingly proving to be more powerful than active drugs in trials-and they may just be the key to reducing our dependence on medications.