Everyone feels guilty at times. But it gets dangerous when these feelings become overwhelming. Isn’t there a pill for that? Indeed, there is: Placebo!
If only there was a pill to get rid of guilt, life would be much easier. There is no such pill, but placebos exist – and are known to work for many things. So, can feelings of guilt also be treated with placebos? Researchers at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel have now looked into this, and the results are surprising.
See, guilt is one of those things. We usually feel guilty rightfully so, mostly because we have done something wrong – whether consciously or unconsciously. Guilt is important. It strengthens our interpersonal relationships and helps us try to behave correctly. Because, when you experience consequences for your actions, you usually want to avoid them. But what if the feeling of guilt takes over? What if you feel guilty even though you are not at fault and this feeling hinders you in your daily life? That’s when a pill to make the guilt go away would come in handy. But there is no pill. However, something else might help: the good ol’ placebo effect.
A recent study investigated whether placebos can reduce feelings of guilt. For this purpose, the researchers recruited 109 healthy people. They were asked to write down a situation in which they felt guilt towards a person close to them and which still weighs on them. The researchers assessed the factors of stated guilt, shame, pride, and emotional valence before and after this task. Then, the subjects were randomized to deceptive placebo (DP; n = 35), open-label placebo (OLP; n = 35), or no treatment (NT; n = 39) groups.
The result: guilt decreased significantly in subjects of both placebo groups compared with those without medication. The interesting thing is that the placebo effect worked even when the subjects knew it was a placebo.
“Our findings show that deceptive and open-label placebos were equally efficacious in reducing the self-conscious emotion of guilt,” the authors state. But there are several limitations to the study which require critical examination. Only a single medication intake was assessed for immediate effects. ”The measurements of the outcomes were subjective rather than objective [...] and since the absence of a significant difference is not the same as equivalence, future studies should use noninferiority comparisons of DP and OLP treatments to answer the question of the equivalence of both treatments.” Also, long-term effects were not examined. “In the current study the observation of a symptom-specific placebo response following a symptom-specific rationale might be biased, as this was not systematically tested in a randomized fashion,” the authors add.
For example, in treatment of depression, where placebo effects have been used successfully for a long time. What is new, however, is the realization that even openly administered placebos can have such a great influence on negative emotions such as guilt.
At best, guilt helps to save a relationship. But in the worst case – which is often the case with mentally ill people – feelings of guilt are maladaptive and lead to stress, loneliness and self-punishment. So, a drug treatment approach that works – even if only via placebo effect – might well advance therapy. “Guilt can be a burdensome emotion, in both healthy and clinical populations. [... ] The results show that placebos are efficacious in reducing acute experimentally induced guilt responses in comparison to no treatment, regardless of the placebo administration (i.e., open vs. deceptive). This indicates that placebos can have demonstrable effects on guilt and that these effects can be employed while respecting important ethical principles,” the authors said.
However, it should not be forgotten that feelings of guilt in healthy people and especially the natural way of dealing with them might not be comparable to the feelings of guilt of, for example, depressed people. Especially because people with mental illness often have less effective coping mechanisms and strategies for dealing with negative emotions.
Bildquelle: JOSHUA COLEMAN, Unsplash
