When I was young, I played with my little cousin, who was a girl liked to cry a lot. Once I took her doll to make her chase me, she fell down from upper stairs. She cried so loud that made me panic because who wanted to be blamed by adults? Suddenly, I came up with something. I gave her a candy, and told her it was a magic pill that could cure her pain. After she swallowed, she told me her body was not painful any more. According to official definition on Medicinenet, Placebo Effect is a phenomenon that a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful.

Recently, scientists from McGill University stated a finding that Americans are becoming more likely to to report they have feelings of effect after taking fake painkillers. Only in America, the placebo effect has affected people strongly since 1990s. They collect data of  84 drug trials of painkillers tests based on patients’ self-report of feeling the pain after taking either the actual medicine or the placebo. The result founds that, according to Melissa Dahl who writes an article about this topic, “in 1996, medications were rated as being 27 percent more effective painkillers, on average, as compared to placebos. By 2013, however, that difference had shrunk to just 9 percent.” The practical implication has frustrated many companies, which make painkillers. In the last decade, more than 90 percent pills have failed to show a significant affect by comparing taking placebos in the final stages of drug trials. The researchers conclude one potential explanations. The first one is, US is one of the only two countries that medicine companies can advertise their products directly to consumers. Advertisements may increase consumer’s expectation of the potential efficiency toward the pills.

However, are people truly feel better from the bottom of their hearts? Is there some possibilities for patients who report they feel better merely because other patients who took the pill and all said it worked? Or because they do not want to let the one makes the drug disappointed? In other words, can this be a file drawer problem? (explanation of its phenomenon can be found here). This can be a social behavior problem rather than a medical one. People are more dependable and see themselves more through other’s eyes than before.  “Do I suppose to fake a big smile after he passes the pill to me?”  There are too much potential variables that can affect a patients’ reception of pain and their thoughts to express the pain. How to reduce the challenge brought by placebos? It is a worthy discussion that scientists should work on.