Placebo pills can improve women's PMS symptoms

Telegraph

26-03-2025

Placebo pills can improve women's PMS symptoms, a study has found.
The trial involving 150 women found that placebo pills were more effective than standard treatments for the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).
PMS is the umbrella term given to the symptoms women can experience in the weeks before their period, which includes mood swings, depression, tiredness and bloating.
Researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland split the group of women ages between 18 and 45 with PMS symptoms into three groups.
One group was given standard treatment, which can include antidepressants and hormone-based pills such as oral contraceptives.
The second group was given a placebo pill without being told, while a third was given the placebo and told it was a placebo – known as an open-label placebo – along with an explanation as to why it may help.
Previous studies have shown the potential for open-label placebos – which are typically sugar pills and have no active ingredients – to help with conditions such as IBS, chronic lower back pain, ADHD, depression and menopausal hot flushes.
The third group, who were given the open-label placebo and told it had no active medication, had the best response on every metric, the researchers said.
Standard treatments were least effective
The pills were taken twice a day for six weeks and the women in this group saw an average 79.3 per cent reduction in their symptom intensity and 82.5 per cent fall in interference in their lives. They also had the highest decrease (70.7 per cent) of psychological symptom intensity between menstrual cycles.
Meanwhile, women receiving just the placebo without the explanation reported a 50.4 per cent reduction in symptoms, a 50.3 per cent drop in interference in their lives and a 42.6 per cent fall in mental health symptoms.
Those who received standard treatments reported the smallest improvements of the three groups.
Symptoms within this group were reduced by 33 per cent, interference in daily lives was 45.7 per cent lower, and psychological symptoms decreased by just 29.1 per cent.
While the 'placebo effect' is a well-known concept that describes the benefits a patient feels from a treatment that cannot be attributed to the placebo itself, it is even less clear why telling someone they are taking a placebo may help.
The researchers suggest the expectation created by an explanation could provide a boost, giving women a 'sense of autonomy and empowerment'.
The authors of the study, which is published in the BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine journal, acknowledged that there were limitations in the design of the trial.
The trial had been advertised as a study for a side-effect free intervention for PMS, which may have attracted participants who were more open to unconventional treatments or those who were dissatisfied with existing treatments.
Results were also reliant on people's accurate reporting of their own symptoms.
The researchers concluded that supplying open-label placebos 'with a treatment rationale to women with PMS can decrease symptom intensity and interference considerably in the absence of substantial side-effects and with full transparency'.
They said the treatments 'could serve as an acceptable, efficacious and safe intervention for PMS'.