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Between science and mystery, the placebo effect is one of the strangest phenomenons in medicine. It is thankfully due to this that a few millilitres of water are transformed into an effective antidote and few pills of sugar are capable of eliminating the desire to take a sleeping pill. It is a type of marvel which is encountered on the borders of science, between psychology and physiology, and which paradoxically reveals itself to be of great importance in the development of new drugs. We are gradually discovering the way in which they operate. American researchers have, through the use of medical imagery techniques, for the first time succeeded in visualising the placebo effect taking place in the brain. What about homeopathy? Is it more effective than the elixir derived from rabbit hairs of the Far East? In any event, the famous placebo effect can be demonstrated to be more powerful than ever imagined!