The strange power of belief in medicine is more than just pills

Is that a placebo? It's a question that I was asked by one of my patients earlier in the week. I was amused and a bit bemused.

- Dr Ali A Smith

The answer was no, but the question was much more complex than a simple yes or no. A placebo is a drug that I know to have no beneficial effect and is given in place of one that I know does.

In asking the question there is a suggestion that my patient didn't entirely trust me. An idea that I might be somehow deliberately fooling them. Giving them something that I knew had no effect but that would make them go away.

There is a sense that at a later date, the patient will find out that the medicine was not real and they would feel humiliated. For that very reason, deliberately using ineffective drugs as a placebo is considered ethically unacceptable.

However, we are complex and the world isn't simple. Our minds are not as logical or reasonable as we like to think.

We know that if you colour pain medications red, they are more effective than if they are white.