In Why Placebos Really Work: The Latest Science the Wall Street Journal points to the increasing frequency of ‘serious’ science envisioning health interventions that consciously include placebos and invoke the placebo effect. It seems the mind-body divide is something of an illusion!

Nevertheless, even though at least 50% of doctors actively prescribe placebos – often active drugs in such low doses that there is no apparent therapeutic benefit, or vitamins, antibiotics or over-the-counter analgesics like aspirin – they are still disinclined to prescribe a sugar pill. I guess they feel like it’s cheating, somehow.