The body is often not helped by miracle pills
On October 7, 1892, the famous physician Max Pettenkofer decided on a desperate experiment to prove to the world the inconsistency of Robert Koch's theory that cholera is caused by specific microbes that have entered the body. Pettenkofer diluted a culture of Vibrio cholerae in a glass of water and drank the resulting mixture. And what is surprising - the desperate medic did not get cholera. Now medicine has already proven Koch's rightness, but what saved Pettenkofer from a deadly disease? There are different opinions. Some believe that the laboratory staff deliberately sent a weakened strain to the well-known doctor, while others believe that Pettenkofer had been ill with cholera in his youth and acquired temporary immunity. However, in the annals of medicine, this case is described as the clearest example of the so-called placebo effect.
Fake medicine
The word "placebo" itself, translated from Latin, means "I will like it." As the official medical term for “fake medicine,” placebo was first documented in 1894. The fact is that in 19th century medicine, doctors used pills that did not contain active ingredients when they were sure that the disease was due to suspiciousness or simply the whims of the patient. Ca-
har, chalk, calcium gluconate - these simple substances sometimes worked wonders. The doctor could only convince the patient that this pill is the latest development in medicine, and the imaginary patient was quickly recovering.
However, at the end of the 30s, the English statistician Bradford Hill proposed a method of "random controlled trials", which, according to the scientist, would allow an objective assessment of the effectiveness of drugs and medical procedures. Patients are divided into two groups: one was given the test drug in the form of tablets, and the other was given drugs of the same appearance, but not containing the test substance. Even the doctors who were watching the patients did not know which pills were given to which group.
Now, for pharmaceutical novelties, such a test has become mandatory. Gradually, the researchers noticed that the condition of some patients in the group that was treated with "dummies" significantly improved.
In 1955, the American physician Henry Beecher published an article on the results of 15 clinical trials, during which it was found that the well-being of about a third of patients changed for the better under the influence of "dummies". In his article, Beecher called this phenomenon the "placebo effect." Later it turned out that this effect also works for any other medical procedures, up to surgical operations on the principle of "cut, look, sewn up". And scientists have come to grips with the study of the placebo phenomenon.
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Red and blue pills
Interestingly, the ability of a placebo to affect the patient's body depends primarily on the disease. Pacifiers work best for psychosomatic illnesses such as dermatitis, asthma and eczema. In addition, they are good at relieving insomnia, depression and anxiety. But it is not always possible to relieve pain with “pills with nothing”. Yes, they are indispensable for neurotic pain, migraines and pain associated with vascular tone. But in suppressing pain from injuries, placebo is meaningless, as well as in operations without anesthesia - for this, the patient must be abnormally suggestible.
Scientists have identified a general pattern: the more the nervous system plays a role in the disease mechanism, the more pronounced the placebo effect can be. Useless "dummies" and infectious diseases. However, the course of the infection itself depends not only on its pathogen, but also on the response of the body, in particular, on the immune system - a striking example of this is the above case with Dr. Petten coffee. And this case is not an isolated one.
Renowned biochemist Linus Paul-ling declared vitamin C to be an effective means of preventing influenza. And people believed and really became
less likely to get sick, although clinical studies have already proven that the vitamin has nothing to do with it, it works the placebo effect.
But placebo cancers, unfortunately, are not subject to. In addition to the above, the effectiveness of placebo is highly dependent on the characteristics of the patient's personality.
According to psychologists, people who react to placebos are romantics, inclined to believe in miracles, socially active and somewhat neurotic. They are not distinguished by ambition and self-confidence. Moreover, even in these people, the result of treatment is strongly dependent on the feeling of novelty - with prolonged use of the "dummy", which worked so successfully immediately after the appointment, gradually lost its effectiveness.
It's funny that a placebo has a stronger effect on married people than on single ones, and the color of the pill also matters: red, brown and yellow capsules work better than blue and green, and purple is generally useless. And perhaps most surprising to the researchers was the fact that patients do not need to be misled to achieve the placebo effect.
15 patients with pathological anxiety received a placebo pill, according to the methodology of a study conducted at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They were honestly warned that these drugs are nothing more than sugar pills, adding that they help many. And after a few days, 14 out of 15 patients noticed that their anxiety was significantly reduced! Nine people in this group directly associated their results with taking the pills. Six suspected that the pills contained active ingredients. Three complained of side effects: blurred vision and dry mouth (such side effects are observed with some psychotropic drugs).
Unfortunately, every coin has two sides, and a negative placebo effect was soon discovered. When taking a dummy, the patient's condition may not only improve, but also worsen. For example, if trial participants were warned that nausea was a side effect of a drug, it was reported by both those treated with the real drug and members of the control group who took pacifiers. During trials of chemotherapy drugs, the control group experienced intense hair loss, sometimes almost the same as the recipients of the real drug. In addition, any procedure may be ineffective due to the patient's mistrust of it. Endless allergies, intolerances, panic attacks are, in most cases, a negative placebo effect, manifested in people who are wary of drugs.
Placebo effect mechanism
The study of the placebo effect has been going on for over 50 years, but its mechanism is still not well understood. It is known, frankly, little. The pain relieving effect of placebo is due to the presence in the human brain of endorphins - hormones of happiness. Their effect is similar to that of morphine, only 100 times stronger. Studies have shown that in cases where a placebo is given to a patient under the guise of an anesthetic, the body perceives it as a signal to increase the synthesis of endorphins. As is clear, a "dummy" cannot carry any information, therefore, the patient's body decides for itself how to react to it. "Assigned" a pill to painkillers - you need to add endorphins! “Expectation of relief plays a key role in creating the placebo effect, no matter what the person is sick with,says John Stoisle, professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia. “As soon as there is expectation, the brain triggers other mechanisms that target the focus of the disease.”
Our body heals itself, but for some reason does not want to do this without a push from the outside.