This finding presents an opportunity, not a threat. It shows, as I've proposed in the past, that placebos can be engineered to increase their impact.

There are likely to be many factors other than price which influence the impact of placebos, for instance:
- recommendation by a group of experts;
- peer recommendation;
- advertising
- seeing yourself or a friend improve after taking the placebo.

But why work with straight placebos - things which are thought to be inert. Why not work with "therebos" things which may have efficacy, but for which there is no conclusive proof; things such as curcumin?

There could be a "distillation" process: measure your condition, take a therebo, measure your condition, communicate this with others. Then, depending on the results, for the next period stay with this therebo or change to another. Over a period of time the confidence in the best performing therebos would increase and this would in turn magnify their efficacy.

John