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[All things that have been discussed here before, but some people wanted it all in a convenient place]

The most important study on the placebo effect is Hr\xf3bjartsson and G\xf8tzsche\u2019s\xa0Is The Placebo Powerless?, updated three years later by a\xa0systematic review\xa0and seven years later with a\xa0Cochrane review. All three looked at studies comparing a real drug, a placebo drug, and no drug (by the third, over 200 such studies) \u2013 and, in general, found little benefit of the placebo drug over no drug at all. There were some possible minor placebo effects in a few isolated conditions \u2013 mostly pain \u2013 but overall H&G concluded that the placebo effect was clinically insignificant. Despite a few half-hearted tries, no one has been able to produce much evidence they\u2019re wrong. This is kind of surprising, since everyone has been obsessing over placebos and saying they\u2019re super-important for the past fifty years.