Summary: Placebos can help reduce feelings of guilt, even when the placebo is given openly, a new study reports.
Source: University of Basel
People do not always behave impeccably towards others. When we notice that it has inadvertently caused harm, we often feel guilty. It’s an uncomfortable feeling that motivates us to take corrective action, such as apologizing or confessing.
This is why guilt is considered an important moral emotion, as long as it is adaptive, that is, appropriate and proportionate to the situation.
“It can improve interpersonal relationships and is therefore valuable for social cohesion,” says Dilan Sezer, researcher at the Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the University of Basel.
The question of whether feelings of guilt can be reduced by taking placebos is something that researchers from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel have explored.
Their findings have just been published in the journal Scientific reports.
Open-label placebos work
In order to elicit feelings of guilt, test subjects in the study were asked to write about a time when they had ignored important rules of conduct, or had treated someone close to them unfairly, hurt them or even had hurt him. The idea was that study participants should always feel bad about the chosen situation.
Participants were then randomized to three conditions: Participants in one group were given placebo pills misleadingly told it was real medicine, while participants in another group were given placebo pills. were informed that they were receiving a placebo. Both groups were told that what they were given would be effective against feelings of guilt.
The control group received no treatment. The results showed that feelings of guilt were significantly reduced in both placebo groups compared to those without medication.
This was also the case when the subjects knew that they had received a placebo.
“Our study therefore supports the intriguing finding that placebos work even when given openly, and that explaining the treatment is key to its effectiveness,” says the study’s lead author, Dilan Sezer. The participants in this study were all in good health, had no psychiatric disorders and were not being treated with psychotropic drugs.
Clinical applicability not yet proven
When feelings of guilt are irrational and persist for longer periods of time, they are considered maladaptive – in other words, disproportionate. These emotions can affect people’s health and are also, among other things, a common symptom of depression.
Scientific studies have shown that placebo effects can be powerful in treating depression. But the finding that open-label placebos can also be helpful for such strong emotions as guilt is novel. It goes without saying, says Dilan Sezer, that we should try to exploit these effects to help those affected.
“The administration of open-label placebos, in particular, is a promising approach because it preserves patients’ autonomy by allowing them to be fully aware of how the intervention works.”
The study results are a promising first step in the direction of symptom-specific and more ethical treatments for psychological disorders using open-label placebos, Sezer continues.
Further research is needed to determine if it is possible to treat maladaptive guilt with placebos. And it is still unclear whether similar effects are also possible with other emotional states. For Dilan Sezer, one thing is certain: “The use of open-label placebos would be a simple and inexpensive treatment option for many psychological and physical disorders”.
About this psychology research news
Author: Noemi Kern
Source: University of Basel
Contact: Noëmi Kern – University of Basel
Picture: Image is in public domain
See also
Original research: free access.
“Deceptive and open-label placebo effects in experimentally induced guilt: a randomized controlled trial in healthy subjectsby Dilan Sezer et al. Scientific reports
Summary
Deceptive and open-label placebo effects in experimentally induced guilt: a randomized controlled trial in healthy subjects
Placebos are known to produce significant effects in many conditions. We examined deceptive and open-ended placebo effects on guilt, which is important for self-regulation and a symptom of mental disorders.
Following experimental guilt induction, healthy subjects were randomized to receive a deceptive placebo (DP; not= 35), open-label placebo (OLP; not= 35), or no treatment (NT; not=39). The primary endpoint was guilt responses assessed in area under the curve (AUC). Secondary outcomes were shame, guilt, and affect.
We hypothesized that DP and OLP would reduce guilt compared to NT. Guilt responses were higher in the NT group than in the placebo groups (estimate = 2.03, 95% CI = 0.24–3.82, D= 0.53), while the AUC of guilt did not differ significantly between the placebo groups (estimate = −0.38, 95% CI = −2.52–1.76, D= −0.09).
Placebos are effective in reducing acute guilt responses regardless of placebo administration (i.e., open or deceptive).
Additionally, we observed narrative-specific effects with significant changes in guilt but not shame, pride, or affect.
These results not only indicate that guilt is safe for placebos, but also that placebos can be administered in an ethical and potentially emotion-specific way.
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