Open-Label Placebo Cognitive Training May Be Ineffective for Cognitive Improvement
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Recent research suggests that deception is not required to elicit placebo effects. So-called “open-label” placebos are honestly given placebo treatments with beneficial effects, primarily on self-report outcomes. In a randomized control trial, I used open-label placebo cognitive training to try and improve cognitive performance. The strengths of the experiment come from a large sample, matched protocols across conditions, and the inclusion of relevant constructs to test mechanistic explanations. However, no effects were observed on either objective or subjective outcomes as a result of the open-label placebo treatment. There were some unexpected performance differences between participants recruited from a flyer advertising the brain-training component of the study, compared to participants recruited from a control flyer. The results of the primary hypotheses (open-label placebo effectiveness) may reflect a true null result, an ineffective manipulation, or noise from an overly complex experiment. The main conclusion is that some skepticism towards the generalizability of open-label placebo effects is warranted. I discuss if that conclusion stems from the current failure of the effect to replicate or from acknowledging the design components that may have caused its failure.