[disgruntledphd2]

> they can ignore the pain,

Just to note that on pain specifically, belief that one has been administered a drug can cause the body to synthesise painkillers. This has been most rigorously demonstrated by the fact that these painkilling effects are suppressed by naloxone (an opioid antagonist).

[taeric]

I'm fairly convinced this is not much different than the way that your body will prime itself if it knows you have an alarm going off at a given time. I don't have the paper anymore, but it was shown that your hormone profile will change with just the knowledge of an alarm. Similar results have been found for other drugs and using cues to the body so that it will prime them itself.

I'd love to read more on how this links to the powers of ritual and general routines. Specifically, if I'm not misremembering, it isn't just "belief that one has been administered a drug", but it has to be a drug that you have had before. Or that you have seen work on someone else. Just taking sugar pills does nothing. Taking sugar pills that you thought were the aspirin pills you took last time you were sick can cause the body to react.

[disgruntledphd2]

> I'd love to read more on how this links to the powers of ritual and general routines. Specifically, if I'm not misremembering, it isn't just "belief that one has been administered a drug", but it has to be a drug that you have had before. Or that you have seen work on someone else. Just taking sugar pills does nothing. Taking sugar pills that you thought were the aspirin pills you took last time you were sick can cause the body to react.

Not always, you can see effects from open placebos, where you tell the participant that they're getting a placebo but placebos have been clinically proven to reduce pain.

It even seems to work when you warn participants in the consent docs that you may lie to them (authorised deception).

I agree that it's probably a broader effect than just sugar pills, it should probably be called expectancy effects.

Benedetti et al have done a load of work on recovering surgical patients that suggest that many, many drugs (including valium) mostly work based on these kinds of effects. Its a fascinating field (and what I did my PhD on).

[burnished]

Fascinating