The Neurobiological Basis of the Placebo Effect and Potential Therapeutic Applications

Abstract

Two patients, Patient A and B, are diagnosed with the same chronic pain condition after a catastrophic car accident. Both patients experience the same type of chronic pain around their neck and lower back. Both patients receive the same prescription from the same doctor, except one bottle of pills does not contain any active drug. Both patients experience pain relief from their symptoms in a few weeks and improve their condition drastically with the treatment. How is this possible if only one of the patients received an active drug compound? The placebo (pla-see-boh) effect, or placebo response, can be described as the “improvement of symptoms” in an individual after receiving a substance under a certain context that is supposed to have no real therapeutic effect (Ortega et al., 2022). But what does this really mean? Is there a neurobiological basis to the placebo effect? Is there an opportunity for the usage of placebo treatments in a clinical setting? In the United States, a country largely influenced by big pharmaceutical companies, delving deeper into the biological basis and further therapeutic application might be seen as a potential threat but nevertheless, a necessary effort to make.