Placebos actually boost memory

SYDNEY - Placebos, inert substances with no medicinal properties, can actually boost memory, new research says.

Placebos like sugar pills are given to patients, telling them they may improve their condition, and not that it is in fact inert. Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief does indeed sometimes have a therapeutic effect, causing the patient’s condition to improve.

Victoria University graduate Sophie Parker focussed on how placebos can improve our memories of the past (retrospective memory) and help us remember to do things in the future (prospective memory).

“I was interested in what would happen when people were given an inert substance that they thought had cognitive enhancing properties, and how that might affect the way people monitor information,” said Parker.

As part of her doctoral research, Parker set up three elaborate trials of a placebo cognitive enhancing drug with around 300 first year psychology students.

“We went to great lengths to create a believable story about this so-called drug. We set up a fictional pharmaceutical company, a fake website, a promotional DVD and posters for the sham drug that we called R273, which was actually Vitamin C powder mixed with water,” says Parker. Participants were then given the placebo.

“The findings show that people unwittingly acted in ways that improved their memory. They also believed that their memory, responses, concentration and senses were improved by the placebo, as compared to the control group who weren’t given the sham drug and showed no real improvement in either retrospective or prospective memory,” says Parker, according to a varsity release.