Placebo Effect , What is ? We live in a divided world. According to the traditional understanding of Western European culture, there is a huge gap between the mind and the body. On the one hand is the visible and measurable, and on the other – our identity, imagination, our creative power. The first is vulnerable, can get sick and is eventually transient, while the second is free and eternal.
For centuries, this contradiction has determined the development of science. Knowledge of the material was recognized only when it was not “contaminated” by spiritual influences. Conversely, the soul can be healed only when the body does not suffer.
For more than half a century, science has been studying the so-called placebo effect. In the beginning, the belief was that a sugar tablet worked as a medicine, thanks to the power of suggestion and the patient’s unconditional belief that he was receiving the latest “super medicine.” According to some psychiatrists, the placebo, ie. the tablet that does not contain the active substance and the tablet with the real medicine work in the same way in 52% of cases of treatment of moderate depression.
Nowadays, many studies on the subject have already shown that placebo has a positive effect in at least 35% of patients, with people with a more labile psyche being the most susceptible to it.
In 2005, neurologists at the University of Michigan published the results of a very interesting experiment in the authoritative medical journal Journal of Neuroscience. Painful saline injections were given to volunteers suffering from toothache.
However, they were told that it was an analgesic injection. Brain reactions were recorded using a tomograph. The neurons of all participants in the experiment began to produce endorphins – “happiness hormones” that block pain receptors and actually reduce pain.
British doctors have proven the effect of placebo in surgery. They gathered a group of volunteers suffering from arthritis. Some of them underwent knee surgery (arthroscopy), while the others underwent only a superficial skin incision. After 2 weeks, the pain in the patients in both groups decreased equally and the mobility of the joint improved.
Placebo (from the Latin I will please – will calm, satisfy) is a substance without medical properties, which causes improvement in the patient due to his belief in its effectiveness. The placebo effect is a medical phenomenon in which the patient’s belief in the inert substance “placebo” or imaginary therapy leads to the expected results of treatment. The placebo effect can be used both as a stand-alone treatment and as an adjunct to actual therapy.
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What increases the placebo effect?
- color – tablets in warm colors (red, yellow or orange) have a greater effect than the same, colored in “cold” colors (blue, green or purple);
- size – large tablets have been found to have a greater positive effect than small ones;
- name – the registered trademark has a greater effect than pills without a trade name;
- price – when the price of the placebo tablet in question is $ 2, instead of 40 cents, it is found that purchases increase by about 24%;
- form – injections have a greater effect than pills;
- number – taking two tablets has a greater effect than one.
The physiological effect of placebo is directly related to self-suggestion and anticipation of effect. The strength of this expectation is also related to people’s belief that the treatment they receive is genuine. Both those taking real drugs and those receiving placebo believe they are receiving real treatment.
The desire to relieve pain, the motivation to achieve goals, and the extent to which pain is expected to be reduced increase the placebo effect. In addition, children were found to be “more susceptible” to placebo than adults
Where is the placebo effect most effective?
Medications with a placebo effect are used for insomnia, nervous stomach, heart disease, depression and others. In general, the greater the relationship between suffering and the patient’s perception of reality, the stronger the effect of each placebo medication. Insomnia, pain and melancholy are born in our head. But the effect is not always the same. Optimism could drive away the feeling of defeat, but if it lasts more than a few months, then only real antidepressants help.
The placebo effect is strongest in the treatment of pain. This is proved by the practice of the Italian neurologist Fabrizio Benedetti. At his clinic, after lung surgery, patients received a real painkiller. Additionally, however, the nurses attached a jar from which salt flowed into the veins.
Some of the patients learned the truth and it turned out that they began to feel better due to the natural development of the body.
They lacked the placebo effect. Other patients were deliberately kept in the dark about what was in the bank. To a third, the nurses explained that there was a miraculous medicine, a pain killer. Benedetti noted exactly how many real painkiller injections the pain goes away in individual patients. The result: patients insisted on being given painkillers, but often without reason.
The explanation for this is that the brain is able to provoke the production of hormones that stop pain – the so-called opioids, in their chemical composition they are close to opium. Thanks to opioids, women tolerate labor pains. The hormones in question are also released when a wounded person travels a long distance to save his life. The brain decides how much pain to give us and how much to save us.
Neurobiologists at the Stockholm Royal Institute used computer technology to photograph patients’ heads when they were being treated. In the experiment it was noticed that even the appearance of a doctor in a white apron has the effect of an opioid – ie. has a analgesic effect. Some patients are then given painkillers and others are told to touch a metal plate, explaining that it is a painkiller.
In both cases, the areas above the bone marrow and in the forehead are illuminated on a computer screen, which means that opioids have appeared there. The real and the imaginary medicine work in a similar way. The difference is that the drug comes from outside, and the placebo effect is the result of the action of the human spirit. Until a century ago, there were few doctors who dared to make a direct connection between the state of mind and body. However, research in recent years has shown that at the molecular and cellular level there is a direct relationship between the nervous, hormonal and immune systems.
The development of the technique allowed the “black box” of the brain to be opened to some extent, where the same news came from. Magnetic resonance imaging shows that certain brain structures in a patient are activated when he takes something he thinks is a medicine. In this case, what matters is not what he actually accepts, but what he thinks he accepts. In such stagings (medical mimicry), scientists have found that signals are exchanged between the nervous and immune systems.
For example, when the subject is convinced that he is drinking strong coffee, but is actually consuming a low-caffeine liquid, an increase in heart rate and blood pressure is reported.
Life in anticipation
Historical statistics show that mortality decreases during Christmas and Easter or at various family celebrations. Often a mortal “waits” to celebrate his birthday and only then surrenders his spirit to God. Others do not die while they are supported by the hope that a loved one will visit them on the deathbed.
A study conducted among Chinese living in the United States shows that those who are considered to be born in an “unfortunate” year according to Chinese astrology, get sick more often and die 1.3 to 4.9 years earlier than others who believe they were born in a “happy” year.
It is often observed that the patient’s condition improves when he lives in anticipation of the occurrence of some particularly important event for him. Improvement also occurs when the patient believes that he is being given a branded, particularly good medicine, whether or not he is actually taking the medicine.
The role of hope
He who hopes to overcome suffering succeeds. For example, people with Parkinson’s disease often cannot take a step because of their tight muscles. But when such patients are given an injection of table salt and told that it is actually a strong remedy against their disease, the tremors go away and the muscles relax. The reason lies in dopamine, one of the many substances – couriers of the orders of the brain.
He is responsible for the activity of the muscles, but he also takes care of the appearance of satisfaction, as well as to increase attention when we expect something to happen. When a doctor approaches us with a syringe in his hand, we release dopamine. This is especially important for patients with Parkinson’s disease, as they have impaired formation of this substance. The truth is that claiming that a placebo cures everything is an exaggeration. The less often a person can be out of balance by influencing his psyche, the more difficult it is to have the opposite effect on his organism in the way of the psyche.
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