I had been around people on placebos for so many years. And I noticed that people were always worried if they were on placebos. If they got better, the would worry, “Maybe I made it up in my head.”

About five years ago, I said to myself, “I’m really tired about doing research that people say is about deception and tricking people.”

Let’s just try to see if we can be honest, transparent: Is it possible that [the placebo effect] would work giving a placebo pill and telling people the truth? People said I was nuts.

The first open-label study we did was in irritable bowel syndrome.

People on no treatment got about 30 percent better. And people who were given an open-label placebo got 60 percent improvement in the adequate relief of their irritable bowel syndrome.