Entirely agree with the thrust of your comments Potstock.I'm no...

Entirely agree with the thrust of your comments Potstock.

I'm no expert, but surely, the 'placebo effect' is simply an example of 'mind over matter'. The power of belief can produce amazing outcomes in many aspects of life. However, for it to produce long lasting behavioural and symptomatic changes, in relation to physical neurological conditions would appear most unlikely.

[If that were the case, we could simply concentrate on inducing placebo belief without bothering to invest in any expensive drug development - just give patients in BOTH double blinded arms of an experimental trial a harmless substance describing one arm as 'control' (the drug to be tested) and one as 'experimental' (the so-called placebo).]

The above is not to say placebo effect should not be investigated in drug trials. It is extremely important to do so, when testing for efficacy, but where changes in base line symptoms occur the longevity of those changes become important in the analysis of that efficacy, particularly with regard to placebo conclusions.