A study at Michigan State University found that non-deceptive placebos, or placebos where the people taking them were fully aware that they were placebos, effectively managed stress.
According to RCO News Agency, Researchers recruited participants who had experienced long-term stress from the Covid-19 pandemic for a two-week randomized controlled trial. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to a non-deceptive placebo group and the other half to a control group that did not take any pills. Participants interacted with a researcher online through four virtual sessions on Zoom. Those in the non-deceptive placebo group received information about the placebo effect and were mailed placebo pills along with instructions for taking the pills.
According to ScienceDaily, the study shows that the placebo group showed significant reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression in just two weeks, compared to the untreated control group. Participants also reported that non-deceptive placebos were easy to use.
“Long-term exposure to stress can impair a person’s ability to manage emotions and cause significant long-term mental health problems, so we’re excited to see,” said study co-author Jason Moser, professor in the Department of Psychology. An intervention that requires minimal effort can still lead to significant benefits.
Researchers are particularly hopeful about the ability to remotely administer non-deceptive placebos by healthcare providers.
This ability to remotely administer non-deceptive placebos dramatically increases its potential for expansion, says Darwin Guevarra, one of the study’s authors and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.
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