Taking a sugar pill can sometimes lead to real improvements in health. How does believing in a treatment, even when it’s fake, trigger physical changes in our bodies?
In: Biology
The placebo effect is partly not an “effect” at all – it is a way of adjusting for [reversion toward the mean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean).
Many experiments and trials recruit people based on some temporary criteria. For example, in medical trials, subjects often have some disease that is being treated. Many diseases get better on their own without any treatment, so having a placebo group allows a researcher to observe the difference the treatment makes to recovery **over and above the natural improvement.**
In many other experiments, there can be other parts of participating which can influence what is being measured. For example, in weight loss trials, simply weighing someone regularly can have an impact on their eating habits (and weight), in psychological experiments, the act of talking through the questions of an instrument repeatedly over time can alter responses.
Using a placebo-controlled trial allows a researcher to put someone in exactly the same situation as the treatment group except for giving them the treatment. This tries to adjust for anything else imaginable that could get in the way of measuring the treatment effect (including the possibility of what most people mean when they say the placebo effect).
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