With the placebo response being so high, it shows that patients are willing to believe anything they are taking is helping them. However one body cannot be fooled in the long term especially with this illness. We know this illness can have a fluctuating course for some, so feeling better from one intervention needs to be tested and measured over time, 6months, 1 year, 18 months, 2 years. Chances are, patients are not significantly better after 2 years.
We are in desperate need of measurable biomarkers as we move forward. We need to know who has the same disease and which subset, who is sicker, and why, amongst other things.