What if the simple belief that you could get better was enough to reduce the symptoms of disorders such as depression, anxiety and ADHD? The authors of a study just published on JAMA Psychiatrywhich sheds new light onplacebo effect in mental health. But can a “sugar pill” really have an effect on our mood?
The importance of the placebo
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The placebo effect is that phenomenon whereby we experience an improvement in health conditions after taking a substance or treatment without active ingredients. It is based on the belief of receiving an effective treatment, triggering a positive response from the body even if this is not the case. In clinical trials, placebos are used to evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs or treatments and, according to psychologists, testify to the power of expectations and beliefs in the healing process. But, until now, few had investigated how well it worked in the treatment of mood and behavioral disorders.
I study
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A group of researchers from the University of Dresden took a look 90 randomized controlled trials, involving nearly 10,000 adult participants, mostly in their 30s and 40s. The discovery was that the placebo treatment led to significant improvements in symptoms in nine mood and behavioral disordersincluding major depressive disorder, mania, ADHD, panic disorder, PTSD, social phobia, and – to a lesser extent – schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The placebo tablets used in the randomized controlled trials were identical in appearance and taste to the drugs administered by psychiatrists, but lacked the active ingredient. An important discovery, not only because it confirms – if any were needed – the power of the mind over the bodybut because it suggests that for some disorders, foregoing prescription drugs early on might be acceptable, if patients have mixed feelings or anxiety about taking pharmacological therapy.
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Conclusion
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The authors of the study admit that some improvements observed could be attributed not only toplacebo effect itself, but also to the natural course of the disease and other non-specific effects. Furthermore, placebo treatment led to improvements in symptoms in the nine mental health conditions examined, but with substantial variations between the different diagnoses. We have seen, for example, a difference in the effectiveness of placebos in anxiety and depression disorders compared to schizophrenia And obsessive compulsive disorder. This suggests that symptoms of some disorders (such as the sadness that accompanies depression) are more sensitive to attention and reassurance than the symptoms of complex conditions such as schizophrenia, where drugs continue to be significantly more effective than placebo.
