Eli5: How do placebos’ trick our brain into thinking they do something? How do we eventually get healed if the placebo didn’t do anything in the first place?

Question

Eli5: How do placebos’ trick our brain into thinking they do something? How do we eventually get healed if the placebo didn’t do anything in the first place?

In: Other

Answer 1

In general, the placebo pill doesn’t “trick” your brain, YOU trick your brain. Bottom line, a lot of the current medication *helps your immune system* deal with a disease, rather than the medication directly dealing with the disease. Not all of the medication, of course, but quite a bit of it, your immune system does all the heavy work, with the medication “helping”.

So if you read [this article](https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-the-placebo-effect), you’ll see that placebo pills sometimes have an effect but it’s generally for conditions where your state of mind has an effect, such as depression for example.