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A fascinating article on the placebo effect was published a few years ago - the result of a Swedish study, the world's largest. They concluded that the placebo effect only works for pain treatment.

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Placebo isn't stronger than all medicines, it's stronger than some - which is why they have to do blind trials and declare whether a drug is "better than placebo". The drugs that aren't better won't be (or shouldn't be) licensed for sale

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bradley said:

I'm certain it works for health and healing as well. They always (in legit studies) do double blind studies when comparing the effects of say, vitamin c, to a placebo. Placebo effects are almost always seen. This Swedish study is just another statistical outlier.

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This is also flawed reasoning. Suppose a pill is tested on the immune system and the placebo group shows a 30% reduction in colds while the real drug shows a 50% reduction in frequency of colds. In this case, the placebo would be stronger because it accounted for 30% while the pill accounted for 20% reduction. Secondly, by definition, the strength of the placebo effect will depend on what treatment people think they're getting. It can't be spoken of as a fixed quantity.

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