They showed the benefits of painkillers could be boosted or completely wiped out by manipulating expectations.
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, also identifies the regions of the brain which are affected.
Experts said this could have important consequences for patient care and for testing new drugs.
Heat was applied to the legs of 22 patients, who were asked to report the level of pain on a scale of one to 100. They were also attached to an intravenous drip so drugs could be administered secretly.
The initial average pain rating was 66. Patients were then given a potent painkiller, remifentanil, without their knowledge and the pain score went down to 55.
They were then told they were being given a painkiller and the score went down to 39.
Then, without changing the dose, the patients were then told the painkiller had been withdrawn and to expect pain, and the score went up to 64.
So even though the patients were being given remifentanil, they were reporting the same level of pain as when they were getting no drugs at all.
Professor Irene Tracey, from Oxford University, told the BBC: "It's phenomenal, it's really cool. It's one of the best analgesics we have and the brain's influence can either vastly increase its effect, or completely remove it."
The study was conducted on healthy people who were subjected to pain for a short period of time. She said people with chronic conditions who had unsuccessfully tried many drugs for many years would have built up a much greater negative experience, which could impact on their future healthcare.
Professor Tracey said: "Doctors need more time for consultation and to investigate the cognitive side of illness, the focus is on physiology not the mind, which can be a real roadblock to treatment."
Brain scans during the experiment also showed which regions of the brain were affected.
The expectation of positive treatment was associated with activity in the cingulo-frontal and subcortical brain areas while the negative expectation led to increased activity in the hippocampus and the medial frontal cortex.
Researchers also say the study raises concerns about clinical trials used to determine the effectiveness of drugs.
George Lewith, professor of health research at the University of Southampton, said: "It's another piece of evidence that we get what we expect in life.
"It completely blows cold randomised clinical trials, which don't take into account expectation."
By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12480310?print=true
UPDATE - 9th March 2011
I have just received the following information which fully supports the above:
"In 2003, a top executive of the pharmaceutical giant Glaxo-SmithKline -- worldwide Vice President of genetics -- confessed that "The vast majority of drugs -- more than 90% -- only work in 30 or 50% of the people."
Dr. Allen Roses is the pharmaceutical industry insider who made this shocking confession. Although it's been an open secret within the pharmaceutical industry that most of the drugs it produces are ineffective in most patients, this is the first time that a high-ranking pharmaceutical executive has gone public.
Some industry analysts said that the confession of Dr. Roses is reminiscent of the famous words uttered by Gerald Ratner, a British retail magnate in 1991, who said that his high-street shops are successful because they sell "total crap."
But it's one thing for a company to sell worthlessproducts ... and it's another thing altogether to sell worthlessproducts that kill instead of heal.
FACT: In the U.S, the odds of being killed by conventional medicine are almost 20 times (2,000%) greater than being killed in an automobile accident and almost 30 times (3,000%) greater than being killed by a gun.
It's no wonder that the majority of doctors are frustrated. They entered the medical profession wanting to cure people --- but the only tools that medical school training provides them for treating patients are ... drugs and surgery.
Doctors have been thrust headlong into a marketing culture that relies on selling as many drugs as possible to the widest number of patients. It's a culture that has made Big Pharma the most profitable industry in the world -- even though most of its drugs are useless, at best -- and even possibly harmful or deadly for many patients.
Dr. Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, further states: "Drugs for Alzheimer's disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients."
The growing sentiment among doctors is that they want to offer their patients more treatment choices for curing disease than the medical system offers. One member of that growing number of doctors is Dr. Paul Beals.
"I want to do more for my patients than what's offered by the pharmaceutical industry because I realized earlier on that modern medicine has become, unfortunately, more of a big business than a healing science." -- Paul Beals, M.D., C.C.N. Georgetown University School of Medicine (Course Instructor 1996-2004: Introduction to Complimentary and Alternative Medicine)
As you may know, the Feel Good UK philosophy comes from the teachings of Abraham Hicks, who has a great deal to say about the power of 'expectation' in these following audio clips:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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