Is the Placebo Effect Real?
Many are still under the mistaken impression that the placebo effect is somehow a “lie;” some kind of trick.
However, modern research tools such as MRI scans reveal the effect is most definitely real, as it creates measurable changes in your brain.
For example, in trials involving placebos for pain relief, the participants’ brains release natural opioids that provide opioid-mediated pain control. So, the placebo effect is tapping into the same pain control centres as opioid drugs.
Placebo trials on patients with Parkinson’s disease is have revealed even this serious condition can be ameliorated with a dummy pill.
Lack of dopamine is one of the factors producing the symptoms of Parkinson’s, and brain scans show that when Parkinson’s patients are told they’re receiving an active medication, the dopamine levels in their brains increase, even when there’s no active ingredient in the pill. In fact, a placebo can release as much dopamine as amphetamines in a person with a healthy dopamine system.
Placebo Effect Also Plays a Big Role in the Effectiveness of Conventional Drugs
Some studies into the placebo effect have concluded that even many conventional treatments work because of the placebo effect. In one such study, the placebo effect was found to account for more than 50 percent of the therapeutic value of the migraine drug Maxalt.( Rizatriptan )
Science Translational Medicine January 8, 2014: 6(218):218ra5
Lead author Ted Kaptchuk, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, explained:
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"This study untangled and reassembled the clinical effects of placebo and medication in a unique manner. Very few, if any, experiments have compared the effectiveness of medication under different degrees of information in a naturally recurring disease.
Our discovery showing that subjects' reports of pain were nearly identical when they were told that an active drug was a placebo as when they were told that a placebo was an active drug demonstrates that the placebo effect is an unacknowledged partner for powerful medications."
The Power of Expectations
Your expectation plays a significant role in the placebo effect, research shows. These expectations are influenced by medical rituals such as being forced to wait in a waiting room, being greeted by a doctor wearing a white lab coat and so on.
The words and body language your doctor uses also influence your expectations. Telling the patient that the treatment will relieve their symptoms produces a greater placebo effect than saying it “might” help.
Other factors that influence a patient’s expectations include the size, color and price of the medication. For example:
The Washington Post, July 27, 2015
PLOS One, Are All Placebo Effects Equal? July 31
· Capsules are more effective than tablets
· Large capsules are more effective than small capsules
· Expensive medications are more effective than inexpensive ones17
· Red pills tend to be energizing while blue pills tend to be best for treating pain
· Sham injections and sham acupuncture (which also uses needles) are more effective than placebo pills
In short, the placebo effect relies on your body’s own chemicals, released in response to or in accordance with your mental or emotional expectations or beliefs.
Research has also shown that your emotions and/or expectations can significantly influence the perceived intensity of pain. Positive expectations and emotions tend to minimize pain, while negative emotions such as fear tend to exacerbate it. This is an aspect of pain that has been exploited by torturers throughout human history.
Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensue discussion or debate.
Thank you …Conventional medicine does not represent the universe of potentially valuable treatment protocols. The mood, emotion, human circumstance, human interaction and belief, has the ability to convert the innate capacity of the body to heal itself.
Dr. Lissa Rankin, founder of the "Institute of Total Health Medicine", is dedicated to teaching physicians how to provide health and wellbeing in a holistic way. She explains scientifically, as a thought or a positive or negative emotion, in the mind, it results in spontaneous repair in the body, in a way to exercise as a placebo.
As a result, hormonal imbalances, etc. are exerted on the mechanisms of DNA self-repair, etc. The mind-body connection has given rise to disciplines such as psychobiology and psychoneuroimmunology.
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/awake-the-wheel/201305/mind-over-medicine..
Placebos act as drugs to trigger changes in brain chemistry, heart rate and blood pressure, and even improve short-term memory. Endogenous anandamide produced by the placebo effect participates in pain, depression, appetite, memory, and fertility.
The placebo stimulates the frontal cortex, the prefrontal cortex, the basal ganglia, and the amygdala, activating the dopaminergic and serotonergic pathways. Neurotransmitters whose release is modulated by the activation of indogenic cannabinoid receptors include L-glutamate, GABA, noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin and acetylcholine. This report is very complete.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../PMC2430692 www.nature.com/.../nm.2435
Placebos and nocebos enter into the psychosocial context that informs the therapeutic ritual. Social stimuli, like the doctor's words, can activate the endocannabinoid circuits and other networks of neurotransmitters of the placebo effect.
Natural medicine and its holistic therapeutic action is of great help to act with a placebo effect, unlike allopathic medicine, which serves the patient with fewer opportunities for conversation and psychological response, which can enhance the nocevo effect.
Converse in a positive way about the treatments, stimulate the mood, provide confidence and security, ultimately creating a constructive doctor-patient relationship, where the patient trusts the doctor, and the doctor emphasizes the positive results.
Want to add word or two?
Persuasive communication can have a great benefit in the placebo effect.
www.sciencedirect.com/.../S0074774218300047 . (2018)
A placebo is relief from belief: people often feel better simply because they believe they have been treated. More precisely, it is the appearance or illusion of a treatment effect that is not actually attributable to a biological treatment mechanism. Placebo effects can be downright bizarre, and they can seem almost miraculous in the right circumstances.
A meta-analysis suggested that only 25 percent of the efficacy of common antidepressants is due to the drug itself, while half of the effect may be attributable to the placebo response.
www.mega.nu/.../pre0010002a.html
This meta-analysis found that placebo treatments have an effect against pain. jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2694717 (2018)
Your comment ….?
Placebos do not work for everyone, they can be influenced by several factors, type of disease, genetics and gender differences. Depressed patients with Alzheimer's have a reduced placebo effect. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have established an important link between the endocannabinoid system and the placebo effect.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../PMC4222079
A review of the scientific literature of the last 10 years gave the authors confirmation that, beyond the COMT gene, there is evidence of genetic variation in other neurotransmission pathways that modify the response to placebo. Among them, the opioid pathways, the endocannabinoids and serotonin.
www.cell.com/trends/molecular-
To consider the nocebo effect in allopathic medicine. Negative expectations may increase the production of inflammatory prostaglandins, thus worsening the perception of pain. Patients with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy often face a powerful nocebo in the form of anticipatory nausea.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../PMC5735997 (2017)
www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/side-effect-management/breast-cancer-chem.. (2017)
Optimism, the capacity for active behavioural and mental coping of individuals to cope with adversity, susceptibility to hypnosis and the ability to respond to verbal suggestions, attention to the body, empathy and concern for others has been wanted show the propensity for the highest placebo analgesic effects.
On the contrary, sensitivity to anxiety, avoidance of damage and physiological suggestion with a tendency toward catastrophism and exaggerated pain have been associated with nocebo effects.
Placebo and Nocebo Effects: The Advantage of Measuring Expectations and Psychological Factors
www.frontiersin.org/.../full (2017)
Placebo gets more love than it deserves. I am interested in the biology and psychology of placebo, but it is not a magical mind-over-matter phenomenon, or even a good consolation prize when treatment is otherwise ineffective.
The power of belief is strictly limited and accounts for only some of what we think of as “the” placebo effect. There are no mentally-mediated healing miracles. But there is an awful lot of ideologically motivated hype about placebo …
Technology Head at Integr8 IT
6 年Yes