The Placebo Effect in Medicine

Placebo, Latin for I will please, refers to a treatment that appears real but is designed to have no therapeutic benefit. In recent years, researchers have studied the extent of placebos, and how they impact individuals, altering the medical field.

Do Placebos Work? In a 2019 study, Science Translational Medicine researchers gave 3 groups migraine pain medication: Group 1 was given a migraine drug, labeled with its name, Group 2 was given a placebo, labeled ‘placebo’, and Group 3 was given nothing.  The results? The placebo was 50% as effective as the real medication to reduce migraine pain! Despite knowing that they were receiving an inactive treatment, patients still experienced significant relief, suggesting that the mind plays a critical role in the perception of pain and healing.

How Do Placebos Work? The exact mechanism of the placebo effect is still under investigation. However, scientists agree it involves complex neurobiological reactions, enhancing ‘feel-good neurotransmitters’, such as endorphins and dopamine, which improve brain activity in regions linked to moods, emotional responses, and self-awareness. A recent investigation was led by a PLOS Biology study that “Used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of people with chronic pain from knee osteoarthritis. Then, everyone was given a placebo and had another brain scan. Researchers noticed that those who felt pain relief had greater activity in the middle frontal gyrus". This region makes ⅓ of the frontal lobe, significantly affecting brain function and comprehension. Despite this, it must be considered that these studies on placebos are always led in medical environments, which can affect how one’s body perceives symptoms, after receiving attention and care.

Why Aren’t Placebos Used in Clinical Care? Because of ethics. Would it be right to give a patient a sugar pill for their back pain, which would truly make them ‘feel better’, without them knowing it was a sugar pill? Generally, the risk of undermining patient trust withholds many medical professionals from using placebos. Dr. Ted Kaptchuk and Dr. Anthony Lembo, researchers at Harvard Medical School believe in ‘open-label’ and ‘honest’ placebos and have used them with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients, who, with the knowledge that they are given non-therapeutic interventions, feel their condition is improving.

What Does This Mean for Us, and for Future Generations? With the placebo effect, there has also been a development in the nocebo effect, occurring when negative expectations cause more negative impacts than they otherwise would have. Clinically, researchers have found a correlation between optimistic personality types and a positive placebo effect, in contrast to critical personalities tending more towards the nocebo effect.  This suggests that an individual’s lifestyle (healthy diet, exercise, quality social time, and meditation) can have a placebo effect. It can also mean that in the long term, individuals may try to self-heal before reaching out to medical professionals, by imagining they feel better, which, through the placebo effect, would make them feel healed. However, this remains a concern: someone with a chronic illness could drag the placebo effect for so long, that a curable illness would only be uncovered once deadly and incurable. Therefore, the placebo effect could lead to significant advancement in medicine in the future, altering society and functioning and people's behavior, both positively and negatively. 

Works Cited

Fevang, Per. “Doctors Have a Placebo Effect.” Tidsskriftet, Aug. 2019. https://tidsskriftet.no/en/2019/08/debatt/doctors-have-placebo-effect, last accessed: 13 Jan. 2025.

“Interview with Dr. Kathryn Hall on Placebo Research.” Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School, July 2021. https://oshercenter.org/2021/07/28/interview-with-dr-kathryn-hall-on-placebo-research/, last accessed: 13 Jan. 2025.

Leopold, Seth S. “A Conversation with Ted J. Kaptchuk, Expert in Placebo Effects.” National Library of Medicine, May 2021. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8277290/, last accessed: 13 Jan. 2025.

LeWine, Howard E. “The Power of the Placebo Effect.” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, July 2024. https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect, last accessed: 13 Jan. 2025.

"Placebo Effect." Better Health Channel, Victoria State Government, July 2021. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/placebo-effect, last accessed: 13 Jan. 2025.