Thinking about the placebo effect
If the placebo effect is the result of an expectation in thought, if we took the placebo out of the equation and retained only the thought, would that still help? If the placebo has no intrinsic medicinal value, isn’t the effect from a placebo already the result of the thought connected with it?
A placebo is a non-medicated pill, or sugar pill, often used to set a benchmark in research to determine the effect of a drug. Patients often experience positive therapeutic effects from a placebo and this is thought to be the result of their thought that it will help them. This is called the “placebo effect”.
I’ve read that larger placebos have been found to be more effective than smaller ones and taking two placebos more effective than one. Also, that placebos were more effective when given to a patient by a doctor than when they were self-administered. All of this even though they have no active ingredient.
