[eli5:] Can a placebo instantly make someone well or are placebos always a process in which, for example, a person takes placebo pills and only overtime becomes well?
In: Biology
It depends on what you are treating and what the form of placebo is. If you have a mild headache and someone gives you a sugar pill but says it’s Tylenol there’s a chance it will work about as immediately as Tylenol.
But it’s unlikely placebo will have any effect on something major if you try to tell them one little pill can solve it.
Likewise studies have found certain colors of pills nor effective for certain things because people think they ‘fit better’ (blue sleeping pills, for instance), bigger pills work better, and fake injections best of all.
Of course in all cases it’s not really a treatment, though it may feel like one.
Latest Answers