How do placebo pills work?

Placebo pills work primarily through the phenomenon known as classical conditioning and the body's natural pain-relieving processes. Even when individuals are aware that they are taking a placebo, they can still experience a beneficial response due to conditioned responses created from past experiences with real medications. For example, if someone has experienced relief after taking a medication multiple times, their body may replicate that relief in response to a placebo, simply because it has been conditioned to expect relief. This is due to the brain releasing endogenous substances similar to pain-relieving drugs, essentially tricking the body into healing itself 1.