We have completed maintenance on DiscoverMagazine.com and action may be required on your account. Learn More

Placebos Work Better on Kids, Study Suggests

Discoblog
By Andrew Moseman
Aug 13, 2008 11:43 PMNov 5, 2019 8:45 AM

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news
 

While the science behind the placebo effect is still unclear, a new study may have found a group for whom it's especially effective: children. Kids' tendency to be more open to the power of suggestion than adults appears to spill over into medicine. French pediatricians reviewing data from many different studies of children and adults receiving either anti-epilepsy medication or a sugar pill found that while children actually responded worse to the drugs than adults, they responded 50 percent better to a placebo, with one in five of the kids seeing a serious reduction in their seizure rates. At this point, the researchers don't want to get ahead of themselves; they say the study really affirms something they already knew, that children respond differently to drugs than adults do. As a result, more research should be done strictly on the effect of pharmaceuticals on kids, rather than just assuming they'll react to a drug the same way adults do. But the French researchers' findings might get to the heart of the placebo effect—believing a drug will help you probably increases the chances that it will help you. After all, children are more likely than adults to believe that something handed to them by an authority figure in a white coat is going to make them feel better. So perhaps they are the ideal placebo patients.

Image: flickr/Rodrigo Senna

1 free article left
Want More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

1 free articleSubscribe
Discover Magazine Logo
Want more?

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Subscribe

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

More From Discover
Recommendations From Our Store
Shop Now
Stay Curious
Join
Our List

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

 
Subscribe
To The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Copyright © 2024 Kalmbach Media Co.