Recently some research from the journal Pain has highlighted the overall benefits of some so called placebos for the treatment of chronic back pain. With this study that was done there were more than eighty people that suffered from back pain involved and the aspect of placebo was explained to them. The participants were then randomly selected to either receive usual treatment or treatment as well as the placebo in general.
Placebos ease back pain, even if you know it is a placebo - Pharmacy Today, American Pharmacists Association, pharmacist.com