Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Placebo Works Even if Patients Know

Can placebo work even if patients are in on it? (istockphoto)

(CBS) Imagine your doctor gives you fake medication and tells you it's nothing more than a sugar pill. Would it still work?

Incredibly, according to a new study of patients with irritable bowel syndrome, the placebo effect, even when patients were in on the secret, worked almost as well as the leading medication on the market.

It's also a lot cheaper. And the best part about placebo - no side effects.

"I didn't think it would work," said senior author and Harvard Medical School associate professor of medicine at Anthony Lembo in a statement. "I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo. But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them."

Researchers at the Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center split 80 patients into two groups. One group was given placebos and informed of it. The other group was given nothing.

"Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had 'placebo' printed on the bottle," said Harvard Medical School associate professor of medicine Ted Kaptchuk. "We told the patients that they didn't have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills."

After three weeks. the placebo group reported adequate symptom relief at double the rate of the group told to do nothing (59 percent vs. 35 percent). And those results are about as good as the leading irritable bowel syndrome drugs on the market.

Researchers sounded the usual cautionary notes. The study was small. It's not clear what it would mean for other conditions and more research is needed.

The work appeared in the medical journal PLoS One and was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Harvard.

[albalma]

IBS's symptoms are cured by dextrose and sugar can help too, though less. The active ingredient IS sugar, please don't say there's no active ingredient. I have had IBS/Fructose intolerance for over 10 years and dextrose takes away the pain, as well as a nice hot tea with sugar and especially with dextrose.

To me, this is science I have applied on myself, works every time!

[Sufferer29]

I just saw this linked on a forum and felt disgusted at the belittling of IBS. Do these docs not know that sufferers of IBS can go weeks if not months without a flareup? I have tried changing my diet and exercise routines and nothing helps. I can go a couple months without any symptoms and then BAM for no reason have every associated IBS problem for weeks at a time. This "3 week" study is ridiculous!

[jimttyyy]

This article is unbelievable insulting to me and I think these doctors are idiots for doing this. I have had constant bloating, gas, and a colon full of stool for ten years and every gastroenterologist I see says that I have IBS. Stress has nothing to do with my symptoms. Food has nothing to do with my symptoms. I went on a 16 day water fast and I still was extremely bloated and looked like I was pregnant. These doctors need to stop researching stupid thing like the impact of stress, exercise, diet, and placebos on IBS because for most people these things have no impact on their symptoms. People and doctors are unbelievable ignorant and have no clue how serious IBS can be and how debilitating it is for people that have to deal with it. All this study did was belittle the disease and make a mockery of the people who actually have moderate or severe IBS. These doctors are morons. These doctors need to do more research on what is actually wrong with people like me instead of just randomly trying different placebos and drugs.

[albalma]

Nobody has considered that glucose could be the cure for IBS? I had 14 years of dealing with unending and random pain that kept me up sometimes all night. My wife helped me and we eliminated from my diet foods that were the apparent culprits. One morning I took oatmeal and honey after a long time of not eating either. I searched "why does honey make me sick", ended up in a Fructose Intolerance site, the chemistry is sound, glucose helps in the digestion of fructose and for those that can't tolerate fructose, glucose is a medicine. Tested over and over after that, it removes my pain faster and better than any pain killer available, prescription or not. Please revise.

[edixope4842]

The magnificence of CBS journalism at work. Meanwhile, Assange is exposing corruption on an international level.

Another fluff piece CBS?

[256thid]

You should have read the study first, Mark. Those effects are well known and would not have gone overlooked at HMS where this was done. If you take a look at the paper, the pill was said to only be "like a sugar pill"

[Ransacktruth]

Eric R Biddle who was wrongly imprisoned in Canada was able to ameliorate his worsened irritable bowel syndrome using tapioca and tapioca starch liberally in his diet. He was also correctly diagnosed as having a gluten allergy like disorder and the strict diet has improved his health considerably.

[KU37]

The test was flawed because the control group wasn't given any pill at all. They should have at least been given a placebo. Oh, wait...

[nosneeze]

Does any one know what % delta is needed / statistically relavant between the Placebo and the "Tested Drug" to obtain a FDA 510K Drug approval ?

While I can see the value a Placebo in a Drug Approval... Why is not the NEW Drug compared to an existing Approved Drug ?

I will now go offline .. take my Sugar Pill and wait for a Reply.

[MarkShibboleth]

I hate to point out the obvious, but did they not consider that the sugar pill may have had an effect? IBS is linked to stress/mood. Sugar is also linked to emotional responses. For this test to be accurate they would have to give a pill that does not contain any active ingredients whatsoever which is not possible. IBS is a motility issue and sugar will affect motility. Also the mere act of a physician giving attention to the discomfort is a type of therapy which can illicit a response. This is not a very "scientific" experiment.