A placebo is a pharmaceutical formulation of a drug with the omission of the active ingredient. Contents of a placebo include all excipients, such as fillers, preservatives, flavors, and coloring agents that make part of the drug in a standard formulation. Scientifically, a placebo should be incapable of obtaining positive patient results due to the absence of the active ingredient in the formulation. However, several studies have shown that a placebo may achieve positive patient results when administered, termed the placebo effect.
The placebo effect is among the most untapped potentials in the field of medicine and patient care. Despite proven evidence that some placebos attain similar results as active ingredients, there remains disdain, which delays its official acceptance in healthcare. Treatment of anxiety and depression, by use of antidepressants, has also shown to benefit from the placebo effect phenomenon. The active ingredients in these drugs work by balancing serotonin or norepinephrine, key in the management of anxiety and depression. However, studies have shown that most of these positive effects are down to the placebo effect, rather than the active ingredients (Kirsch, 2019). Upon taking these drugs, the patient expects his symptoms to diminish, thus triggering a natural balance of serotonin or norepinephrine.
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Patient expectations, which trigger positive outcomes when under placebo, is a critical area that needs to be researched and tapped. Studies should also incorporate the providers’ expectations. Since medical treatments are founded on social interactions and relationships, providers' expectations combined with patient expectations may increase the potential of placebos in getting positive results. The impact of improved outcomes in such a setup has already been shown in a study by Chen et al. (2019). The research indicates that a provider's expectations directly impacted patient experiences in pain management.
References
Chen, P. A., Cheong, J. H., Jolly, E., Elhence, H., Wager, T. D., & Chang, L. J. (2019). Socially transmitted placebo effects. Nature Human Behaviour , 3 (12), 1295-1305. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0749-5
Kirsch, I. (2019). Placebo effect in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Frontiers in Psychiatry , 10 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00407
