[phil9909]

This could be placebo, but it could also be "self-healing" effects or just natural variation over time (which would cause a similar amount of patients with worse results) or a combination of this or something completely else.

Maybe you can rule out some of this, but I'm asking the question: Is the placebo effect the only plausible explanation for this numbers? I don't think so.

[atombender]

In these studies, we see a slow increase in benefit over a period of (typically) 24 weeks, in line with the active arms. With autoimmune diseases, things don't get slowly better when you're not on medications. Some ebb and flow, sure, but not gradual improvement.