Benefits of patient-doctor relationship

I HAVE just read an interesting article in the Health section of TIME magazine (Sept 3-10) titled “Placebo’s new power”.

Placebo pills have long been used in clinical trials to facilitate researchers in comparing the efficacy of a particular treatment or new drug being studied. However, it was not so much the suggestion that placebo pills may one day be used as part of an actual medical treatment that got me thinking. Rather, it was the psychological concept behind this postulation – the patient’s mind and how he or she perceives the treatment received – that made me wonder if such findings can be applied in our current healthcare system.