The mechanism of the psychophysiological effects of placebo.
The psychological and physiological components of the placebo phenomenon are connected in a way which is analogous to the connection between thermal imagery and skin blood flow and skin temperature. The content of mental imagery affects specifically skin blood flow and causes temperature changes. By analogy, the physiological effects of placebo depend on the content of the patient's treatment-related imagery. The long term effects of placebo in a specific disease depend on the duration and repetition of a single placebo effect. Placebo affects through a complicated and holistic psychophysiological system. Therefore its effect can be more long-lasting than the effects of more specific agents. Thus placebo should be used intentionally together with treatments and drugs which have more direct physiological and pharmacological effects.
Kojo
I
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Department of Physiology, Helsinki, Finland.
D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010919:Placebos / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011603:Psychophysiology
D010919:Placebos