We may take it for granted that frightening and serious conditions like asthma require medication. However, a study discussed in Time's article Study: For Asthma Patients, Placebos Feel Just as Good as the Drug calls this assumption into question – at least in terms of how medication makes patients feel.

Conducted by Harvard Medical School, the study demonstrated that placebos (treatments that aren't real but the patients don't know it) "can be as effective as standard medical therapy."

Researchers gave 39 chronic asthma patients one of four interventions: albuterol inhalers, placebo inhalers, sham acupuncture (in which the patients didn't actually receive acupuncture, but believed they were), and no treatment at all.

Over 12 medical visits that spanned up to four months, patients' symptoms were gauged objectively through measuring lung function and subjectively through asking patients if they felt better. Results indicated no statistical difference between real and sham treatments in how patients said they felt.

However, placebo treatments did not actually improve lung function, indicating that the placebo effect, while it doesn't actually make a physical difference in patients' symptoms, has a powerful effect on patients' perception of how they feel.

As study author Ted Kaptchuk, director of the program in placebo studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center puts it: "It's clear that for the patient, the ritual of treatment can be very powerful. This study suggests that in addition to active therapies for fixing diseases, the idea of receiving care is a critical component of what patients value in health care. In a climate of patient dissatisfaction, this may be an important lesson."