Unfortunately, as we have already shown previously, psychotherapy lacks a true placebo intervention, and some of the nonspecific effects in drug therapy, such as the empathy of the therapist and the quality of the patient–therapist communication, become quite specific effects in psychotherapy.

Is psychotherapy better than placebo?

For the most part, these studies involved small samples of subjects and brief treatments, occasionally described in quasibeliavioristic language. It was concluded that for real patients there is no evidence that the benefits of psychotherapy are greater than those of placebo treatment.

What is the placebo effect in therapy?

What Is the Placebo Effect? The placebo effect is defined as a phenomenon in which some people experience a benefit after the administration of an inactive "look-alike" substance or treatment. This substance, or placebo, has no known medical effect.