Originating
in Latin, the word “placebo” is often translated into English as “I will
please.” In healthcare, the word typically refers to any type of “fake”
treatment—medicine, manual therapy, or surgery—that does not actually alter a
person’s health.
A placebo is
anything that seems to be a ‘real’ medical treatment—but isn't. It could be a pill, a shot, or some other type
of ‘fake’ treatment. What all placebos
have in common is that they do not contain an active substance meant to affect
health.
Why are
placebos used? Researchers use placebos
during studies to help them understand what effect a new drug or some other
treatment might have on a particular condition. For instance, some people in a study might be
given a new drug to lower cholesterol. Others
would get a placebo. None of the people
in the study will know if they got the real treatment or the placebo. Researchers then compare the effects of the
drug and the placebo on the people in the study. That way, they can determine the effectiveness
of the new drug and check for side effects.
What, then,
is “the placebo effect”? Occasionally, a
patient will actually respond to a placebo, either positively or negatively. The patient's symptoms may improve, or the
patient may have what seem to be side effects from the treatment. Collectively, these responses are known as the
placebo effect.
While this description
of the placebo effect is great for explaining the basic idea and how it works in
experiments and clinical trials, a growing community of healthcare researchers
and clinicians believes it is fundamentally flawed. This is because it fails to recognize that
every placebo treatment DOES have one active ingredient: BELIEF.
More recent
studies on the placebo effect have concentrated on the connections between the
mind and body. One very pervasive theory
is that a patient’s beliefs—in particular, their expectations—control the
placebo effect. In short, if a patient
believes that a treatment will do something, then their body's own chemistry
may, in some cases, produce results comparable to what that they believe the
treatment will achieve.
In one study,
for example, volunteers were given a placebo and were told it was a stimulant. After taking the pill, the volunteers’ pulse
rates sped up, their blood pressures increased, and their reaction
speeds improved. When people were given
the same pill and told it was to help them get to sleep, they experienced
the opposite effects.
Experts also
say that there is a relationship between how strongly a person expects to have
results and whether or not results occur. The stronger the feeling, the more likely it
is that a person will experience positive effects. There may be a profound effect due to the
interaction between a patient and health care provider. So, your choice, rapport, and trust in your
doctors can actually have an impact on your health!
A research
team from the Harvard Medical School recently conducted a study that used migraines
and a migraine drug to isolate the placebo effect in a group of 66 patients who
were experiencing constant migraine attacks. Get this:
There was no difference
between the pharmacology of the drug in reducing pain and the placebo dressed
up with a nice word… Basically we show that words can actually double the
effect of a drug. That's pretty impressive.
This is a
very, very important idea. If true, it
means that the effectiveness of EVERY TYPE OF TREATMENT depends—at least in
part—on the patient’s own attitudes and expectations and how those expectations
and attitudes are created and managed by their doctor. This may be especially relevant for ailments
that involve the subjective experience of symptoms, including certain types of
pain.
What’s
particularly exciting about this type of research is that the mind-body
connection it explores is at the center of many therapies used by practitioners
of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), like chiropractic. As a
chiropractor, I have a strong faith in your body’s innate ability to heal
itself, and it’s your nerve system that directs the healing. Give your body the best chance with proper
exercise, nutrition, and nerve system health (through adjusments!), and don’t
underestimate the power of your mind—the control center of your nerve system.
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