The Placebo Experiment: Can My Brain Cure My Body?
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
For once, in this enlightening and entertaining one-off, the BBC’S gonzo doctor-inresidence Michael Mosley is letting other people take the plunge. Over 100 Blackpool residents with chronic back pain have agreed to take an experimental new painkiller, after receiving GP consultations to diagnose their conditions. But the latter is the only true thing about this trial; the patients have been told that half of them are taking a placebo, but in reality every one of them has been given a bottle of white-and-blue pills that contain nothing but powdered rice.
Can the brain, when primed correctly, produce its own, even more powerful analgesics? Each of the guinea pigs keeps a video diary; the early signs are not promising. But slowly, the placebo effect begins to bear fruit – and, in some cases, with a startling efficacy. Every year, the NHS spends over £400million dispensing prescription painkillers, and British patients swallow almost 5billion tablets. Dr Mosley’s experiment, then, may suggest a timely remedy for a national institution in crisis, and for a population in thrall to the power of the pill. Gabriel Tate