Director of the Program in Placebo Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess
   in Placebo Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Inside the Placebo Effect
   things are more unsettling than the placebo effect. How can an inert
   By using sugar pills, saline injections, or even sham surgery, placebo
   medications or procedures. Recent research on the placebo effect has
   Placebos mainly influence patient self-appraisal. They cannot shrink
   Placebos can behave like drugs; and the placebo effect can also make
   Research shows that various components of the placebo effect – for
   Many psychosocial mechanisms have been implicated in placebo responses.
   Until recently, it was assumed that the effects of placebo pills
   the treatment was “real” for placebos to work. But new research
   neurobiology. Recent evidence shows that when placebos have salubrious
   placebos, the brain releases endogenous opioids and/or CB1 cannabinoids
   Likewise, neuroimaging studies show that placebo treatment activates
   disease have shown that placebo treatment releases endogenous dopamine
   to have greater placebo responses.
   The effects of placebos are not always beneficial. The placebo effect
   has a dark twin called the nocebo effect. Although placebos are
   biologically inert, as many as 26% of placebo-treated patients drop out
   ingredient is an anticonvulsant, the nocebo effect (the placebo’s side
   This underscores the importance of placebo effects in the development
   in which the drug demonstrates superiority over placebo treatment.
   However, evidence suggests that for some illnesses, placebo effects
   “placebo drift” poses significant challenges to detecting drug-placebo
   healing that can arise from a good therapeutic relationship. Placebo
   We need to learn more about the placebo effect’s power and limitations.
   medical outcomes. And we need to know more about the placebo effect in