What is the placebo effect and how does it work?

**Amber Minogue** (0:04)
What is the placebo effect and how does it work?
Thanks for asking. The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which a person's symptoms or well-being improve after receiving a fake treatment that has no specific or intrinsic effect on their condition. For example, a person may feel less pain after taking a sugar pill that they believe is a painkiller, or they may feel more energetic after receiving an injection of saline solution that they think is a vitamin. How does the placebo effect work? The placebo effect is not just about positive thinking or wishful thinking. It involves complex psychological and physiological mechanisms that are not fully understood.
There are a number of factors that may influence the placebo effect, for example, the context of the treatment. The effect might be stronger if the person receives care in a medical setting with professional staff, equipment and procedures that create an impression of credibility.
A person's expectations and personality can also have an effect on the outcome. If they have high hopes in the treatment or believe that it will work, it is more likely to. Interestingly, optimists are also more likely to see positive results. Finally, the nature of the treatment can make a difference. More invasive, expensive or complex treatments tend to get stronger results. What are the benefits of the placebo effect? Although the treatment might be fake, there are real physical, psychological and biological effects. It can activate the release of neurotransmitters, such as endorphins and dopamine, that modulate pain and mood. It can also affect brain regions that are involved in emotion, cognition and self-awareness. These changes can have real therapeutic benefits for some conditions, such as pain management, fatigue and stress relief, which in turn can help with a host of other problems. What are the limitations of the placebo effect? Unfortunately, it is far from a cure all. It does not work for every person or every condition. It does not affect objective measures of disease progression, such as tumour size or blood pressure. It may also wear off over time or be influenced by negative feedback known as the nocebo effect, where despite having only taken a placebo, patients feel negative or unwanted side effects. And using placebos instead of effective treatments can be unethical and harmful, especially for serious or life-threatening conditions. So while the placebo effect is a fascinating and mysterious aspect of human health and behaviour, demonstrating how powerful our minds can be in influencing our bodies and how important it is to consider both psychological and physiological factors when seeking medical care, it sadly cannot always cure us.
There you have it.
Now you know what the placebo effect is and how it works. In under three minutes we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you really will know for sure.