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I am ambivalent about the concept of "sham" surgery as a research tool. It is probably not absolutely necessary to obtain scientifically sound research results. On the other hand, in the real world of late 1990's U.S. government funded scientific research it is the only way the NIH is prepared to spend millions of dollars of "our" money to learn more about a procedure that holds tremendous promise for millions of people with severe Parkinson's. Given this situation, those participants who agreed to such a radical technique, have little choice but to frown and bear it. The worst problem has been a delicate ethical one. Participants who had the sham surgery were told they could receive the real one after 12 months. The scientists who reviewed the data, apparently, told NIH that the results were not conclusive for many months and the NIH would not allow these real surgeries to be performed in the agreed upon time period. This was an awful thing to do to people whose PD was severe enough that they signed up for the study in the first place knowing that every day counts when you are suffering from a progressive disease. It turns out that the results of the study were that, on average, there was no measureable benefit for PWPs above the age of 60. Was the NIH right in denying real surgeries with their inherent risk and minimal prospects for improvement for this subset of people? Probably not. There is a side "benefit" to this research and the sham surgery procedure. Results showed that PWPs who received the sham surgery had a significant placebo effect for lasting as long as one year after surgery. Placebos work! At least to a certain degree. Does this mean that we are all fools - easily fooled by fake procedures and sugar pills? So eager for a cure and desirous of pleasing authority figures that we intentionally deny our own symptoms in order to rationalize all we've been through? Maybe. On the other hand, it does say a great deal about the human will and the incredible part that the mind plays in the health of the body. The PWPs who received sham surgeries IMPROVED. There symptoms were reduced. They convinced their bodies, albeit subconsciously, that they were significantly better as a result of the operation and so they felt better. This is REAL. There is incredible unrealized potential in the capacity of the human mind to improve a desperate physical condition. We have nearly unlimited resources deep in our own brains and bodies to heal ourselves. Perhaps this will be the ultimate legacy of this notorious "sham" surgery. The next time someone tells you that all this warm fuzzy "positive thinking" stuff that they do in support groups and with therapists is a bunch of whooey consider the benefits of a little fake surgery.