Placebo Effects Through the Lens of Translational Research, p. 337-C6.3P75, 2023
DOI: 10.1093/med/9780197645444.003.0025
Abstract The global COVID-19 pandemic limited or prevented traditional in-person interactions with healthcare providers, placing greater emphasis on remote solutions. This crisis came in the midst of the already increasing development of digital health technologies that have transformed healthcare and the patient-provider relationship. The new digitally enhanced landscape of healthcare will undoubtedly present new considerations for patient care, including processes related to placebo effects. With the proliferation of digital health technologies along with expanded understanding and use of placebo and nocebo effect in clinical care, there is a growing need to identify, understand, and harness placebo and nocebo effects in the digital health space. This chapter provides a brief review of extant applications of digital technologies, discusses the significance of the study and application of placebo and/or nocebo effects in digital health care, and looks to the future of digital medicine while considering the potential challenges of isolating and identifying placebo effects.