placebo

Box of Placebo tablets with writing on the box saying - Placebo 30mg. The box is partially opened and shows red-and-white capsules inside. The box is white with a sky blue bar across the length that highlights the word 'placebo' and a dark blue bar across the width at one end.

Open Label Placebos: Why They Work Even When You Know They’re Fake

Open Label Placebos (OLP) are placebos that don’t pretend to be real drugs. They say…

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Bottles with some labels saying placebo and other labels saying extra strength placebo.

Does a placebo work if you know it’s a placebo?

Patients receiving ‘open label placebos’ had reduced pain compared with those who received ‘treatment as usual’. When the latter group were then offered placebos to supplement their usual treatment, their pain also then reduced.

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A scale showing the balance between placebo and nocebo

The nocebo effect

Positive expectations drive the placebo effect, whereas negative expectations drive the nocebo effect. In both cases, the brain simply does what it can to meet these expectations.

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The placebo effect

Forty patients with asthma, emphysema, or restrictive lung disease were given an inhaler that contained…

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