Colin A. Espie, Ph.D., the other session cochair and a professor of sleep medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford (England), commented: "This is theoretically quite an interesting study. I think there might be some ethical problems in devising a practice whereby you systematically give people placebo without their knowledge, so I’m not sure it’s a very usable clinical strategy. But I think it’s an interesting paradigm to understand more about the placebo effect."
Dr. Perlis disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.