“Does the placebo effect really work?” We've all been there, sitting in the waiting room surrounded by people coughing on you, definitely making you worse rather than better. Then, half an hour after your appointment time, your name is called and you arrive at the doctor's office safe haven (healthcare). After a nudge, a nudge and an "Aaaaahh!" quite uncomfortable! with a popsicle stick halfway down your throat and a light shone in the dark cavern of your esophagus, finally! A diagnosis! A prescription is written with the promise of improved health within a week; so you go to the pharmacy to get whatever antibiotic someone has prepared in a laboratory, or at least that's what you're led to believe. What if that magic remedy wasn't actually magic, not a real drug, but made of something simple like sugar? What is the placebo effect? Due to moral conduct, the doctor is actually not allowed to do this, however some people believe that no it doesn't matter what you are treated with; real drugs or sugar pills; the results should be the same. This is known as the “placebo effect”. It is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “a medicine or procedure prescribed for the psychological benefit of the patient rather than for any physiological effect” and is often described as the power of the mind over the body. In addition to sugar pills, studies have shown that salt water injections and even false surgeries have shown placebo effect results. A placebo is often explained using it as a medical example, however it is the explanation for many other phenomena such as hypnosis and pseudocyesis (phantom pregnancy) and even weight loss. Doctors and psychologists aren't one hundred percent sure what their IBS actually is... ... middle of paper ...... tomes. Automatically, all the patients agreed that they wouldn't work since it wasn't a real drug. The results however are different as 60% of participants said that all or many of their IBS symptoms disappeared. So, despite being told that the pills might not have any effect, they still worked. (David Gorski. (2014)) Once the experiment ended, the patients were no longer given sugar pills, and many said their symptoms had returned. They asked the trial coordinators for more but were unable to provide them as they are not considered an official drug. (Kawotsatutlaka144000. (2014)) In recent years it has been argued that placebo pills and treatments should be available as medicines, although many disagree saying that doctors are abusing their authority by handing out fake drugs. However, if it works, it is really a fake drug?