I think so much more research needs to be done on the placebo effect. It’s so strong in certain conditions, but not uniform. Like migraine and depression for instance it’s extremely strong in. When the people in this study who got placebo felt better, that’s a real physical change happening in their brain just like anything else in your brain. Understanding what exactly is happening, how the placebo effect results in improvement in different conditions could uncover new potential treatment pathways for many diseases, especially ones that respond strongly to the placebo effect.
I encourage you to watch the mindfield episode about it. It’s really cool what they do in studies to help kids with pain by not lying but nearly lying about what a “test” will do to help them.
I watched it a long time ago but it was really cool
I don’t understand how placebo could work with something so obviously psychoactive as ketamine. Are the depression treatment doses really small? I don’t think you could mistake placebo for the massive disassociation that comes with a K hole…
That’s the whole point of their new test - They administered it to depressed people who were going under for surgery so they wouldn’t know if they’d been given placebo or not since they were already out.
Pretty solid idea.
Some (conscious) studies also substitute the ketamine or other psychedelic for something like midazolam in the control group so subjects will know they’ve been given something, and a hefty IV dose of a benzo will easily fool a naive person into thinking it was actually something else. Other studies have given the control group a micro/minidose of the active compound for the same reason.
A placebo with special effects during administration. Still effective, just not how some people expected.
Is ketamine supposed to work if you’re unconscious, though? Like this means that placebo has as good an effect as ketamine if you’re unconscious, but it’s not being compared to ketamine you actually experience. I don’t know anything about how the treatment normally works.
