kinds of patients, often in different countries, adminis- tered under different conditions, cannot be uniform and therefore cannot be conclusive. Hrobjartsson and Kaptchuk are united on at least one front. Like Wayne Jonas, they agree that the medical system needs to change. "You have to put this into

irror image of the pharmacological way of handling illness— that there is a pill for every disease. "The entire idea of a placebo is very 'soapy:" Hrobjartsson continued. "It slips away whenever you try to find a border." That has always been true. After all, for many people a placebo is just a sugar pill