They Knew the Pill Was Fake. Their Memory Improved Anyway…

They Knew the Pill Was Fake. Their Memory Improved Anyway. The placebo effect is not new to medicine. What this study adds is something more specific and more clinically interesting. A randomised controlled trial published in the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology tested whether placebo treatments could improve cognitive and physical function in healthy older adults. The answer was yes. But the more striking finding was that the placebo worked better when participants knew it was a placebo. 90 healthy older adults were randomised into three groups over three weeks. Group one received no treatment. Group two received placebo pills and were told the pills contained active ingredients to improve wellbeing and physical function: a deceptive placebo. Group three received the same inactive pills but were told explicitly that the pills were placebos, while being informed that placebos can still trigger beneficial mind-body responses, an open-label placebo. Outcomes measured included short-term memory, selective attention, physical performance, perceived stress, fatigue, and psychological wellbeing — assessed through both va