[Nedusa]

Perhaps the placebo effect in some instances can be examined by the initial pain or ailment not actually existing but the person for a variety of reason has developed the pain as a form of psychosis a bit like munchausen's syndrome where the illness or pain is invented.

Now the mind is a powerful thing and although technically there is no reason for this pain the mind can create actual real pain if believed.

So in these circumstances both a real pill and a placebo will remove this pain as the patient believes he or she is being cured and so the mind will erase this pain in these circumstances.

In this example the belief a pill ( placebo or not) is the reason the pain disappears as the patient has invented the pain as part of a more serious psychosis.