The Practical Side of the Placebo Effect

The placebo effect may be more useful than you realize. Expanding what constitutes a placebo will help you come to this conclusion. By definition, a placebo is a treatment that is believed to be effective but is actually a sham and a “placebo effect” is the response to a placebo. Placebos are used all the time in drug trials. Inert, sham substances and active, real medications are administered to subjects in head-to-head, double-blinded, randomized fashion to test whether or not the response to the active substance is different than the response to a placebo. This placebo versus chemical design has been a cornerstone for drug research. Beyond what is encountered in drug research, the response to a sham treatment can be encountered with any type of treatment not just medications. For example, sham procedures have been utilized to research the benefits of injections. But, what if that treatment is not a sham? What if the treatment is real? As long as that treatment is believed to be effective, then at least a portion of the response to that treatment could be based solely on expectations and a placebo response. Some say that a portion of an effect from any active drug is due to a placebo effect. Thus, any treatment has the potential to be a placebo, sham or not. If anything can be a placebo, then the placebo effect may be more useful than you realize. No one can predict who will be a placebo responder and when a placebo effect will be encountered; but now researchers can actually see a placebo’s effect on the brain in neuroimaging studies.

Seeing is believing. When given an inert, inactive, sham treatment, scientist can see a person’s response to that placebo—the placebo effect. Many areas of the brain like the prefrontal, amygdala, parietal, cingulate, and insular cortex areas of the brain change while under placebo analgesia or during a placebo effect. Many of these areas in the brain are connected with the centers for emotion, the endogenous opioid system and the dopamine system. When the placebo effect was first described by Dr. Beecher in his infamous article titled “The Powerful Placebo”, the proof that such a phenomenon existed was based on clinical observation and reporting. Now, we can actually see the placebo effect in action with advanced neuroimaging techniques. Seeing is believing.

Believing is Relieving. Belief gives the placebo power. Belief that it is real. Belief that it will work. Belief that it has the power to cure. If a person knows that a treatment is a sham, then the power of the placebo no longer exists. A placebo is nothing without belief. This fact can be used to a treatment provider’s advantage. The efficacy of any treatment can be increased substantially by improving the client’s/patient’s belief in a particular treatment. A person has to “buy into” a treatment before any chance of success can occur. Ultimately, it may not matter what type of treatment is given as long as the patient believes that the treatment will likely work because belief in a treatment can produce a desired effect via the placebo response. One just has to believe that the pain, anxiety, depression and suffering will be relieved. Believing is relieving.

The placebo effect is no longer a theoretical anomaly that only has usefulness in the laboratory. Because the effectiveness of a placebo to evoke change is based on one’s belief in that placebo, then seeing the placebo’s ability to change the brain is like seeing how the belief system operates. Tapping into one’s belief system can unleash a cornucopia of potent chemicals in the brain that can relieve anything from pain to depression. A treatment provider can use that belief system to be successful. The chance of success can be improved by improving the belief that the treatment will work, that the provider is competent, that the information is correct and that the patient has the ability to succeed. Medical treatment is useless without such a network of beliefs, just like a placebo is nothing without the expectation that it might work. Belief gives a placebo the power to produce an effect and now is the time for that power to be utilized in the clinical setting in a practical manner. Seeing is believing and believing is relieving. When it comes to the practicality of the placebo effect, you can unleash the power of the brain by unleashing the power of belief.

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Healthcare by drlasich