So, back in September I had a -temporary I must admit- interest on clinical trials and I cared enough to scroll screens in order to read the following Wired’s post,

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

The placebo effect is of the most provocative mysteries of medicine, raising questions about the role of belief and expectation in healing. At the same time, positive response to the fake drugs used as controls in clinical trials of new drugs seems to be growing stronger worldwide. This is causing a crisis in the development of treatments for depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s, chronic pain, and other ailments, as more experimental drugs fail in late-stage tests. Merck’s William Potter, placebo pioneer Fabrizio Benedetti, Columbia researcher Tor Wager, and Harvard’s Ted Kaptchuk talk about the biological foundations of the body’s self-healing networks, the role that advertising may be playing in the rise of the placebo effect, and a new under-the-radar effort by companies like Merck and Lilly to understand why so many drugs are struggling to prove themselves more effective than sugar pills. (source)

Not much to argue about right? There’s a Mind Hack take on the theme too.