Placebo theory research and mechanisms white leonard tursky bernard schwartz gary e 9780898626490 books amazonca. New theories on placebo mechanisms have shown that placebo represents the psychosocial aspect of every treatment and the study of placebo is essentially the study of psychosocial context that surrounds the patient. 1987 placebo theory research and mechanisms journal of psychoactive drugs vol 19 no 1 pp 113 113. Barnhill 2011 posits that the mechanisms of placebo is largely concerned with making use of a patients psychosocial context and psychological aspect when administering drugs to relieve depression and pain this paper examines placebo effect related theories as well as its implications in medical practice placebo theories and mechanisms. bernard tursky v mediational theory a psychological approach to placebo the role of faith in therapy and treatment william b plotkin a conditioned response model of the placebo effect predictions from the model ian wickramasekera drug anticipatory responses in animals shepard siegel conditioned immunopharmacological effects in animals implications for a conditioning