Taking a sugar pill with no active medical ingredients can somehow trigger a psychedelic reaction in some people, if that’s what they’re expecting, and even more incredibly, say researchers, placebos can work when people aren’t being deceived too – when they know what they’re taking isn't medication.
In a recent study, psychologists showed that this strange phenomenon can be leveraged as a simple way to reduce stress, at least in the short term for moderate levels of distress.
“Exposure to long-term stress can impair a person’s ability to manage emotions, and cause significant mental health problems,” said psychologist Jason Moser from Michigan State University (MSU).
“So we’re excited to see an intervention that takes minimal effort can still lead to significant benefits.”
MSU psychologist Darwin Guevarra and team prescribed a placebo for a group of 32 volunteers and offered no treatment to another group of 32 people.
The 64 participants all reported experiencing prolonged stress during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their stress levels, anxiety and depression were measured before, in the middle, and at the end of the two-week trial.
The catch was, the placebo group knew they were getting pills with no active ingredients. They were instructed to take the inert plant fibre pills twice a day, and had to fill out a pill-taking adherence survey daily.
Incredibly, those taking the placebo still had a decrease in stress, anxiety and depression compared with the no-treatment group, despite knowing that what they were taking was just a placebo.
As the sample size was small in this case, Guevarra and colleagues caution that more work needs to be done to see if the results hold true across different cultures and age groups and for longer time periods.
How this fascinating brain trickery works is not yet fully understood.
“Our data suggest that the effects of non-deceptive placebos on affective outcomes cannot be solely attributed to explicit expectations,” Guevarra and team write in their paper, published in Applied Psychology: Health & Well Being.
“Other researchers have suggested that non-deceptive placebos may work through mechanisms such as implicit expectations, conditioning from prior experience with active treatment, and embodied cognition.”
Whatever the exact mechanisms, the researchers suggest using a placebo to treat people experiencing moderate stress may help prevent them from deteriorating into more severe conditions.
“Remotely administered non-deceptive placebos have the potential to help individuals struggling with mental health concerns who otherwise would not have access to traditional mental health services,” Guevarra added.
“This ability to administer non-deceptive placebos remotely increases scalability potential dramatically.”
Other researchers argue there’s not enough evidence to use placebos for treatments yet, as studies like these that support their effectiveness are small and too short-term.
This makes placebos perfect for use as a control in clinical trials to help eliminate biases, but more extensive research is required to confirm their therapeutic value.
Study details
Remotely administered non-deceptive placebos reduce Covid-related stress, anxiety, and depression
Darwin Guevarra, Christopher Webster, Jade Moros, Ethan Kross, Jason Moser.
Published in Applied Psychology: Health & Well Being on 14 August 2024
Abstract
Research suggests that placebos administered without deception (i.e. non-deceptive placebos) may provide an effective and low-effort intervention to manage stress and improve mental health. However, whether non-deceptive placebos administered remotely online can manage distress for people at risk for developing high levels of affective symptoms remains unclear. Volunteers experiencing prolonged stress from the Covid-19 pandemic were recruited into a randomised controlled trial to examine the efficacy of a non-deceptive placebo intervention administered remotely online on affective outcomes. Covid-related stress, overall stress, anxiety, and depression were assessed at baseline, midpoint, and endpoint. Compared with the control group, participants in the non-deceptive placebo group reported significant reductions from baseline in all primary affective outcomes after 2 weeks. Additionally, participants in the non-deceptive placebo group found the intervention feasible, acceptable, and appropriate for the context. Non-deceptive placebos, even when administered remotely online, offer an alternative and effective way to help people manage prolonged stress. Future large-scale studies are needed to determine if non-deceptive placebos can be effective across different prolonged stress situations and for clinical populations.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
The power of the placebo effect
Anti-depressants more effective than placebos in treating acute depression
Even disclosed placebos help cancer patients with fatigue