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Experts say placebo effect accounts for one-third of benefits from any treatment.

By Jeremy Cockerill | November 12, 2009

In a series on the “use and potential risks” of alternative medicine, the AP (11/11, Marchione) reports, “The placebo effect looms large in alternative medicine, which has many therapies and herbal remedies based on beliefs versus science.” According to Dr. Robert Ader, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, “placebos can have real and beneficial effects.” In fact, “the placebo effect accounts for about a third of the benefits of any treatment — even carefully tested medicines, scientists say.” But, “scientists do not always know” how the placebo effect works, and “there are many possible ways.”