Consciousness, Placebo Effects, and the Therapeutic Allure of Psychoneuroimmunology
Perspectives in biology and medicine January 1, 2022 Steven Tresker 4 citations
This article examines how the principle that the mind can heal the body is operationalized in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)-based mind-body therapies, revealing conceptual limitations and opportunities. It analyzes consciousness-related phenomena—willful intentions, thoughts, beliefs—and their causal efficacy, relationships with placebo effects, and boundaries of immune homeostatic control. Focusing on mindfulness, the article explores how understanding its mechanisms, especially those tied to consciousness and placebo effects, can inform valid evaluation of its effectiveness. Without overstating consciousness's role in immune homeostasis, it evaluates how mindfulness might be harnessed to modulate the immune system in clinically relevant ways.