Placebo. Obviously.
New Zealand's First Open-Label Placebo.
It has nothing in it. It's for people who know it has nothing in it, but it works anyway.Because nothing works.
About
nil·pil is NZ's first open-label placebo.
It's a capsule containing only microcrystalline cellulose. No active ingredients. No drug interactions. No side effects. The label says placebo. That's not a disclaimer, that's the entire product.
What is an open-label placebo?
An open-label placebo is a placebo administered with full transparency, the person taking it knows it contains no active ingredient. The research shows that placebo effects can occur even when the recipient knows the pill is inert. Your body doesn't need to be tricked. It just needs permission.
Why did you make this?
I've known about open-label placebos for years. I've read the research, I've read the books, and I've always known they'd work for me. There was just one problem, the only ones available were $35, plus international postage and 21 days delivery. So I tried to make my own. I bought a bottle of vitamin E, put a white sticker over the label, and told myself they were my focus pills. My brain immediately went, yeah, nice try, but those are vitamin E.
That's not how it works. Open label placebos need to look real to be effective. So I made a real one. I can't take it yet. I made it, I know what's in it, and I reckon I need about six months to forget. I know what you're thinking, won't this be the vitamin E thing all over again? Yeah, I've thought about that too. But here's where it gets really meta.
It's very likely that the act of building nil·pil is going to do what nil·pil is supposed to do for me. I'm going to spend the next few months telling serious people that I believe there's a type A personality inside of me. And they're going to believe me. At some point, I'm probably going to believe me too. Building nil·pil will be my placebo treatment.
Because we already know what we're capable of, sometimes we just need a tool to give us permission to believe its true. That's nil·pil in a nutshell.
Research
The research on open-label placebos is younger than you'd think. The first rigorous clinical trial was published in 2010. Since then, peer-reviewed studies have documented measurable effects across chronic pain, fatigue, exam stress and IBS. The science doesn't claim placebos cure everything, it claims something more interesting: that the ritual of taking a pill, combined with an honest understanding of how placebos work, can produce real and measurable effects in the right conditions.
Your body already knows how to do a lot of things. Sometimes it just needs permission.
Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Kaptchuk et al. PLOS ONE, December 2010 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015591 .
80 IBS patients were randomly assigned to either open-label placebo or no treatment. Patients taking the clearly-labelled placebo reported significantly greater symptom improvement, even knowing the pill contained no active ingredient. The researchers noted that the response rate was comparable to established IBS medications.
The first rigorous clinical trial demonstrating that placebo effects don't require deception.
Placebo effect in children: the role of expectation and learning Gniß et al. PAIN, June 2020. DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001811.
A 2020 study in the journal PAIN tested placebo effects in 172 children aged 6-17 across three age groups. Placebo pain relief was successfully produced through both conditioning and expectation. Effects were strongest in children under 14, and significantly stronger when mothers set the expectations. The researchers concluded their results encourage the use of placebo effects in clinical practice for younger children and support involving parents in treatment.
Open-Label Placebo Treatment for Cancer-Related Fatigue: A Randomized-Controlled Clinical Trial. Hoenemeyer et al. Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group). February 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20993-y.
74 cancer survivors experiencing moderate fatigue were given (randomised) open label placebos (OLP) or treatment as usual (TAU). Those who had OLP's, taking 2 placebo pills twice a day for 21 days, reported a 29% improvement in fatigue severity and a 39% improvement in fatigue-disrupted quality of life, compared to TAU participants. Later TAU participants were given OLP and reported similar results to the original OLP participants, suggesting the results weren't simply due to natural recovery over time.
Open-label placebo treatment does not enhance cognitive abilities in healthy volunteers Hartmann et al. Scientific Reports. November 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-45979-3.
Will Nilpil make me smarter? No.
In this study 78 healthy volunteers were given an open-label placebo (OLP) treatment. Subjective and objective measures of cognitive performance were monitored before and after the treatment. No additional benefit to cognitive performance was found using OLP compared to the control group.
Effects of open-label placebos on test performance and psychological well-being in healthy medical students: a randomized controlled trial Kleine-Borgmann et al. Scientific Reports. January 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81502-2.
This study demonstrated that an open-label placebo (OLP) treatment has a positive effect on subjective well-being, including stress, fatigue and confusion, during exam time. This was a randomised, controlled trial using 154 healthy medical students.
Open-label placebo treatment in chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. Carvalho et al. PAIN. December 2016. DOI:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000700.
A randomised controlled trial, using treatment as usual (TAU) and open-label placebo (OLP) treatment on 83 adults with diagnosed persistent back pain for more than 3 months. Using a 0 - 10 point pain scale the OLP participants reported greater pain relief than the TAU group. OLP treatment also reduced disability compared to TAU. Later when the TAU group were given the placebo treatment, they experienced similar results.
Aged Care
Nil·pil for Aged Care
In care settings, residents with memory impairment can forget they've taken their medication. This can cause genuine distress, and without a safe, purpose-built solution, staff are left with limited options.
Nil·pil is an inert capsule containing only microcrystalline cellulose. No active ingredients. No drug interactions. No side effects. Clearly labelled as a placebo on both the bottle and the individual capsules.Single ingredient, clearly labelled
No known drug interactionsWe supply to rest homes and aged care facilities on a contract basis with bulk pricing.
To enquire about bulk and contract pricing get in touch.
Contact
Have you been screaming nothing works into the void for decades too?
Turns out you already knew the answer.
nothing works.
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