There has been much controversy about the placebo effect and homeopathy. Most skeptics believe that the placebo effect is really what is making the person feel better. They believe that homeopathy did nothing at all.
Some recent trials were done with placebos. The results were interesting and quite contrary to popular belief about placebos. Out of 464 studies, 26 meet the researchers criteria about placebo trials. The researchers wanted to see how much improvements patients made with their placebos. Patients actually showed no improvements when taking the placebo for their conditions or diseases. The type of condition or disease did not show any relevancy. However, patients did show a strong relationship between treatment effect and placebo effect. An example of this would pain relief. Placebos seemed to be effective in this type of study since it is subjective.
Further studies need to be done to confirm that the placebo effect is not as strong as once previously thought. Larger studies will be done to get a conclusion on the placebo effect.
References
[P274] The placebo effect dependent on time? - A meta-analysis. Cochrane Collaborative.
