What is the essence of the placebo effect? The doctor prescribes a pill to the person or prescribes any other form of treatment, saying that it will help cope with his illness. And soon the person really begins to feel better. But it is not medicines that heal him, but the body and, first of all, the mind. The treatment itself is, in fact, a fake. For years, researchers have wondered why the placebo effect works. After all, the discovery of the deep mechanisms operating in the human subconscious will help facilitate patient care and reduce the number of prescribed drugs.
10. The placebo effect was discovered when trying to expose a charlatan
The placebo effect was first recorded at the end of the 18th century. Then a Connecticut physician named Elisha Perkins received a patent for the production of medical devices, which he called "tractors." They looked like metal sticks about 8 centimeters long. The doctor claimed that they were made of special materials, although in fact the "Perkins tractors" consisted of an alloy of brass and steel. After the doctor said that his invention helps fight inflammation and relieves any painful manifestations, a stream of patients rushed to him. Perkins suggested that they hold the "tractor" in the area of the sore spot for 20 minutes. Surprisingly, people said they felt much better after the session.
"Perkins Tractors" consisted of an alloy of brass and steel.
But there were also skeptics - many other doctors doubted the effectiveness of the "tractors". British doctor John Haygarth decided to test his colleague's invention and carried out tests with various materials. He created a "tractor" from bone, slate, etc. And Haygart's patients also spoke of the miraculous effects of these devices, regardless of the material of which they were made. John concluded that the improvement in the patients' condition did not depend on the treatment, but on their thoughts and expectations.
9. Placebo works both on a psychological and physical level
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Many believe that the placebo effect is purely psychological. However, there is compelling evidence of the body's physical response to false medication. In 2005, researchers at Michigan State University performed brain scans on 14 healthy young men. They were injected into the jaw cavity with a solution that caused pain. Soon, patients were given a placebo, calling it an effective pain reliever. During the scans, the researchers saw that the areas of the brain responsible for the production of endorphins (pleasure hormones) were activated. The participants also stated that the pain subsided, despite the fact that there were no objective prerequisites for this.
After taking the placebo, the patients stopped feeling pain in the jaw.
This is interesting: In a similar experiment conducted in 2001, participants were given a placebo and additionally injected with drugs that block the production of endorphins in the body. The result was unexpected: This time, the placebo effect did not work. These 2 studies allow us to conclude that it depends on endorphins whether the intake of harmless pills is effective.
8. Placebo injections are more effective
It is no secret that if someone is seriously ill, injections of medications are one of the fastest and most effective treatments. This got the researchers thinking and testing an interesting theory. They were interested in the question: if the placebo effect works when taking pills, will it be observed with placebo injections? In the middle of the 20th, and then - at the beginning of the 21st century, intensive research was carried out in this direction.
With the use of needles to inject the drug, improvements in the condition occurred faster and were more pronounced than when it was taken orally.
Scientists compared the results of treatment of people who took sugar pills (and thought it was a drug) and patients who received harmless placebo injections - the effectiveness was the same. It turned out that when using additional medical equipment (for example, needles) to inject the drug, the improvements in the condition occurred faster and were more pronounced than when it was taken orally. This once again confirmed the power of the placebo effect and proved that the items we associate with treatment at the subconscious level play a very important role in the healing process.
7. Even infertility can be cured
A placebo can help even in severe cases. For one of the experiments, the scientists selected a group of 55 women who suffered from polycystic ovary disease and were trying to get pregnant. For six months, 33 participants were given a placebo, the remaining 32 underwent real drug treatment. And what do you think? In the “placebo group,” five women were able to become pregnant, while in the group of actually treated patients, there were seven. Agree - the difference is not that big and can be attributed to the statistical error.
The placebo even helps in the treatment of infertility.
In some other tests, the pregnancy rate with placebo treatment reached 40%! According to scientists, harmless medications help relieve stress. This, in turn, leads to an improvement in the general physiological state of the body, and women get pregnant.
6. There is also a reverse placebo effect
You've probably noticed that most of the tests tested whether a placebo can act on the body like real medicines. It should be mentioned that reverse studies were also carried out, during which scientists tried to find out whether a real drug will help a patient if he is sure of its ineffectiveness? It turned out not. Moreover, the opposite effect of placebo is manifested in the fact that the effect of any substance, even narcotic, can be blocked if a person does not expect that they will somehow affect him.
In the course of research, scientists have found that placebos can have the opposite effect.
Let's talk about an experiment that confirms the above statement. German and English scientists scanned the brains of people who were given pain relievers. Half of the group was told that they had taken a very strong drug, while other patients were told that they were taking a placebo. In the end, it turned out that people who believed they had received the pain reliever soon experienced signs of relief. At the same time, patients who believed that they had taken a placebo had no effect on real pain relievers. That is, our expectations from the treatment largely determine its success.
5. The cost of treatment affects the results
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati tested 12 patients with Parkinson's disease. They gave each patient a placebo, saying it was an effective medicine to help them cope with the disease. But only to some of them, doctors accidentally announced that their pills cost 15 times more than an alternative medicine. Can you guess what the results were? Patients who were prescribed the "expensive drug" improved their condition faster than people taking its "cheap" counterpart.
67% of participants said they felt better when they started taking an expensive placebo after a cheap one.
Other interesting studies have been done. So, during one of them, 67% of participants said that they felt better when they started taking an expensive placebo after a cheap one. These results show how important our brains are in the healing process. If drugs are more expensive, people tend to think that they will be more effective.
4. Brand also affects the result
It is no secret that similar tablets are produced by various pharmaceutical companies. Their composition is almost identical, only the names and packaging differ. However, research has shown that people are confident that branded drugs are more effective. It has been proven that if a manufacturer is widely advertised and well-known, a placebo in its package will actually work better than the same dummy presented in a nondescript box.
Brand name pills work better than similar cheaper drugs.
This is interesting: In reality, branded drugs are often much more expensive just because pharmaceutical companies invest a lot of money in research and marketing. They need to be returned somehow - so people overpay where they could save.
3. Placebos are now more effective than before
The placebo intake brings more and more convincing results every year. First of all, this applies to antidepressants, sedatives and pain relievers. Today, according to numerous studies, placebos work more effectively than, for example, 20 years ago. Experts attribute this fact to the fact that now patients have begun to relate to doctors and modern methods of treatment with great confidence.
Today, according to numerous studies, placebos work more effectively than 20 years ago.
It also plays a role in the fact that today it is not so easy to get a strong sedative or pain reliever, as, in principle, an antidepressant. Before prescribing to a patient a prescription for some similar narcotic substance, the doctor communicates with the person for a long time, monitors him and concludes whether he really needs such potent medications. Well, after that, how can one not believe in their miraculous effect?
2. The placebo effect can work even if you know
Even when the patient knows they are taking a placebo, the treatment can still be effective. Researchers from Harvard University conducted a study of 80 patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. Half of them were not prescribed any drugs, while the rest of the patients were asked to take pacifiers, the packaging of which reads “Placebo”. At the same time, doctors focused on the fact that they prescribe "placebo pills, made from an inert substance, which are shown in clinical studies to eradicate the symptoms of irritable bowel symptoms through psycho-physical processes." Pay attention to how different this way of presenting information is from the one mentioned in the 6th paragraph.
The placebo works even if the patient knows he is taking it.
And what do you think? By the end of the test, many of the subjects actually felt better. But only in the group that took pacifiers, there were 2 times more of them than in the control group.
1. The effectiveness of placebo surgery
It's one thing to take a pill or get an injection, and quite another to have a placebo operation. Nevertheless, surgical intervention by default implies a physical effect on a specific organ. But recent experiments have shown that many people begin to feel better and literally heal even after placebo surgeries.
Many people begin to feel better and literally heal even after placebo surgery.
For example, in Finland, surgeons worked with patients who needed surgery to repair torn cartilage tissue. Half of the patients underwent real operations. In other patients, doctors under local anesthesia (that is, they remained conscious) performed a small incision and pretended to perform the actions necessary for a real surgical intervention. In fact, they didn't even touch the damaged tissue. Surprisingly, the improvements in both groups were almost the same.
This is interesting: In another study, without knowing it, people with vertebral problems took part. For half of the subjects, a vertebroplasty specialist performed reconstruction of damaged areas of the spine. Other patients underwent sham operations. Once again, placebo surgery was found to be as effective as actual surgery.
And even though the mechanisms by which the body's real self-healing occurs at the physical level are not yet clear, the importance of this discovery is limitless.
It cannot be ruled out that in the future, people will be able to make treatment with placebo even more effective, after which it will gradually replace traditional methods as unnecessary. Just imagine: a placebo filling of a tooth or a placebo removal of a cyst. The possibilities of our consciousness are really endless, it remains only to learn how to open and use them!