Physiotherapy and the Placebo Effect

Abstract

In spite of the fact that the effectiveness of physiotherapy is often claimed to be due to nothing more than the effect of placebo, no discussion about this topic was found in physiotherapy journals. Placebo is often defined as and become synonymous with an inactive therapy whose effects can be ascribed to the 'placebo effect'. In biomedical literature, the placebo effect is regarded as 'unreal' and psychological in nature. However, the placebo effect can be produced without introducing a placebo; furthermore information and conditioned learning may enhance such effects. Placebo-controlled trials are often recommended in order to examine the 'real effect' of interventions. However, this design seems inappropriate whenever information and education are important parts of intervention. In the clinic, ethical issues should be fully considered before enhancing the placebo effect, in order to improve the outcome of modalities.