Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect and of Conditioning

Abstract

A placebo is a sham treatment, such as a pill, liquid, or injection without biological activity, used in pharmacology to control for the activity of a drug. However, in many cases this placebo induces biological or psychological effects in the human. Two theories have been proposed to explain the placebo effect: the conditioning theory, which states that the placebo effect is a conditioned response, and the mentalistic theory, which sees the patient's expectation as the primary cause of the placebo effect. The mechanisms involved in these processes are beginning to be understood through new techniques of investigation in neuroscience. Dopamine and the endorphins have been clearly shown to be mediators of placebo effects. Brain imaging has demonstrated that placebos can mimic the effect of the active drugs and activate the same brain areas. This is the case for placebo-dopamine in Parkinson's disease, for placebo-analgesics or antidepressants, and for placebo-caffeine in the healthy subject. It remains to be understood how conditioning and expectation are able to activate memory loops in the brain that reproduce the expected biological responses.