The Illusion of Healing: Placebo Effect & How it Works

Maanasa B V

Intern, Mind Splatters, Jan - April, 2024

Is it possible to treat a medical condition with the power of suggestion? If your answer is no, this post might make you reconsider your opinion. Our mind is a powerful tool capable of unbelievable and fascinating things. One such phenomenon is the placebo effect. The placebo effect occurs when a false treatment actually improves an individual’s physical or mental symptoms. According to research placebo treatments can be as effective as medical ones under the right circumstances.

Psychological explanations of the placebo effect:

There are various theories explaining the probable causes of the placebo effect. Some include:

• Change in Perception and Expectations: An individual’s expectations highly influence the placebo effect. Our expectations influence our perception. Therefore, when we take a placebo treatment, our expectation of feeling better actually makes us feel better.

• Classical Conditioning: Classical conditioning is a type of learning that occurs when an individual associates a particular stimulus with a response. The associations learnt through conditioning affect our behaviour. If we associate medicine with relief of symptoms, we also associate the placebo treatment with relief. This learnt association between the treatment and feeling better can play a crucial role in the placebo effect.

• Brain chemicals and reduced anxiety: Taking the placebo treatment leads to the expectation of feeling better which can lead to a reduction in the production of stress hormones like adrenaline. Our brain also releases pain-relieving chemicals such as endorphins in response to the placebo treatment.

• Altered brain state: According to research, the brain can respond to an actual and imagined scenario similarly. The remembered wellness theory claims that the placebo causes the brain to remember how the body was before the onset of the illness and causes the same changes to the body.

• Behaviour change: The improvements can be caused by positive behaviour changes made by the individual after taking the placebo treatment such as better diet and exercise.

How can it be beneficial?

There have been numerous clinical trials where patients who took placebos instead of the actual treatment reported improvements in symptoms. Placebos play a vital role in clinical trials for new drugs. During these trials, one group is given the actual drug while the other (the control group) is given the placebo, the dummy treatment. Comparing the effects of the real medication and the placebo can help researchers determine the effectiveness of the medication.

The Nocebo Effect

This is the exact opposite of the placebo effect. In the nocebo effect, symptoms worsen when the placebo treatment is given. This occurs when the patients expect adverse effects from the treatment.

The mind-body connection

Despite extensive research, there is more to know about the placebo effect. One of the major questions that needs to be answered is how the mind affects the body. Both placebo and nocebo effects demonstrate how our minds can affect our bodies by reducing or aggravating symptoms. The placebo effects reduces only certain symptoms and the magnitude of reduction varies. More research is required to understand the precise nature of the mind-body connection and how it causes the placebo effect.

It is vital to remember ethical considerations when dealing with the placebo effect. The use of placebos has caused ethical dilemmas as they used dishonesty and deception for a good cause that is, reduction of symptoms. Some might assume that as a dummy treatment helps reduce the symptoms, the illness itself isn’t real but this is not the case. Research has proven that the mind plays a vital role in our experience of an illness. Therefore, the placebo effect does not imply illness is imaginary or made up. By understanding the placebo effect we can discover how psychology and our mind can help treat ailments more effectively.