They say medicine is ____1____ a science. But sometimes it seems more like a mystery. Take, for example, a new study that shows that sugar pills work, even when patients know they’re taking them. The findings appear in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.
The placebo effect’s been well-documented. Patients who receive ____2____ pills often show clinical improvement. But in all studies ____3____, the patients believed they were receiving a real drug. Placebos work, doctors believed, because the mind is a powerful thing. Just thinking you’re being treated can make you feel better.
In this study, however, docs told patients they were getting placebos. Eighty patients with irritable bowel syndrome ____4____ take two sugar pills daily. The bottle even had “placebo” printed on it. After three weeks, 60 percent of the placebo group reported relief from symptoms, compared to 35 percent who’d received no treatment at all.

The doctors say it’s possible that the very act of ministering to patients may have a positive effect. Their findings will have to be repeated with more patients and other disorders. In the meantime, a sugar pill that can treat what ____5____ ya is pretty sweet.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
as much an art as dummy to date were instructed to ails
安慰劑也會(huì)發(fā)揮效用——哪怕是在你已知道的情況下 據(jù)說，醫(yī)學(xué)同科學(xué)一樣是一門藝術(shù)。不過有時(shí)它似乎更像是個(gè)謎。舉例來說，發(fā)表在公共科學(xué)圖書館雜志《PLoS ONE》（《PLoS綜合》）上的一項(xiàng)新研究表明，哪怕患者明知自己服用的只是糖丸，這些糖丸也會(huì)產(chǎn)生效用。 文件記載表明，安慰劑的效果一直良好。服用安慰劑的患者常表現(xiàn)出臨床癥狀明顯改善。但在迄今為止的所有研究中，患者們都相信他們所服用的是真正的藥物。醫(yī)生認(rèn)為，安慰劑之所以起效是因?yàn)槿说拇竽X非常強(qiáng)大——只要想著你正在接受治療就會(huì)使你感覺更好些。 然而，在這項(xiàng)研究中，醫(yī)生告訴患者，他們服用的是安慰劑。 80例患有腸道易激綜合征的病人被要求每日服用兩粒糖丸。藥瓶上甚至印有“安慰劑”字樣。三周后，安慰劑組中有60%的患者稱減輕了癥狀，而有35%的患者壓根就沒有接受任何治療。 醫(yī)生說這可能是照料病人的此種行為會(huì)對(duì)其產(chǎn)生積極影響。他們的研究將在更多的患者和其他疾病當(dāng)中多次重復(fù)。在此期間，你要是哪里不舒服，吞下一粒糖丸，嘗點(diǎn)甜頭，看來也蠻不錯(cuò)的。