Any form of placebo can have a powerful effect. The patient will often recover or find their condition improved. These conditions can include everything from pain, to depression, to specific ailments like irritable bowel syndrome.
“The placebo effect is a complex phenomenon with profound underlying truths that have not been adequately explained to the public,” writes Epoch Times senior medical columnist Dr. Yuhong Dong. The placebo effect has been so well documented that it has become a focus of research in and of itself.
Sometimes the effect is measured by subjective patient reports of pain or recovery. Sometimes the researchers have specific observable phenomena. In one experiment, researchers used a histamine skin prick test to create an allergic reaction, a small rash on the forearm. They then tested multiple scenarios, including telling separate groups of patients a cream would make the rash better or make it worse. They also tested the scenarios with different doctors, some who were warm and competent and others who were cold and seemingly incompetent.
The study found patients who had a warm, competent doctor tell them the cream would be helpful experienced the greatest reduction in the size of their rash, while the patients who had an incompetent, cold doctor deliver the same message had the least reduction. In all patients told the cream would make the rash worse, the rash stayed the same size.
The findings point to a very important and little-discussed factor in a patient’s healing journey: the bedside manner of their physician.
“Simply put, engaged interaction between doctors and their patients before treatment can produce the most effective results, even with a placebo,” writes Dr. Dong.
This is a particularly important finding because doctors can also induce a nocebo effect, which is the unwelcome opposite of a placebo effect. When patients are told to expect an illness to get worse, some patients will suffer diminished health because of this expectation. One study, for example, found that how doctors discuss a patient’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s can affect his or her overall prognosis.
Meanwhile, Canadian researchers who gave six Parkinson’s patients L-dopamine or placebo pills found even those given the placebo increased their dopamine levels.
Some researchers think the placebo effect is caused by our biochemistry, like this increase in dopamine, and neuroscientists believe multiple brain systems and brain chemicals are involved.
Dr. Dong posits that the placebo effect involves four factors: natural healing, positive belief, the message delivered, and the doctor’s compassion and authority.
What is known for certain is that our belief has an effect on our healing.
Placebos aren’t just for research either, a mother’s kiss can make a child’s scraped knee feel better and athletes can use placebos, like lucky socks, to play better. Studies have found that athletes given a placebo and told it was a new drug or steroids also performed better.
Not to overly generalize, but there may even be a broader placebo effect in our lives. Just as those who expect poor outcomes from a treatment can suffer a nocebo effect, so too can those who expect the worst in life. Research has found that optimistic people, by contrast, tend to live longer and have a lower risk of heart attack.
