Another way alternative treatments may work is through what is called (someetimes derisively) the placebo effect. This phenomenon provides fascinating proof that, when it comes to pain, the mind and body work together. A placebo is any substance or procedure having an effect (usually beneficial) on a patient that, paradoxically, can’t be attributed to the specific properties or actions of the drug or procedure itself. Typically it is an inactive substance like a sugar pill that’s given as if it were an effective treatment for the patient’s pain or disease. Since the 1950’s scientists have consistently found that 30 to 40% of all patients given a placebo show improvement for a wide variety of conditions whether it’s coughing or szasickness, dental or postoperative pain, angina, migraine, or pain from an ulcer. Even more surprising, about 10% of people given a placebo report side effects normally associated with a chemically active drug, and others even experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking the fake drug.
Contrary to myth, there appears to be no “placebo personality” Placebos can work for anybody (not merely “suggestible” people) in the right circumstances namely if the patient believes that someone is trying to help him and thus expects relief, and especially if the “someone” is an optimistic physician in a clinical setting. But also contrary to myth, the relief of pain or illness by placebo effect does not mean that the problem was feigned or ‘just psychological.”
There are possible biochemical explanations for the placebo effect. Some researchers suggest that placebo’s may help activate the internal pain relief mechanism. To investigate this, they have given naloxone (a drug that blocks the effects of opiate painkillers like morphine) to patients whose. pain was reduced by a placebo. dust as naloxone reverses morphine’s action, so it cancelled out the analgesic effort of the placebo and thus increased the pain suggesting that placebos do indeed cause opiate like substances to be released into the blood.
On another level, the expectation of relief may itself reduce anxiety, and this calming effect can reduce muscle tension and increase the tolerance of pain.
The placebo effect can playa Part in the success of any treatment. Your belief, hope, or anticipation that a drug or procedure will heal you may add considerably to its effectiveness. While it’s important for scientists to know whether the efficacy of a treatment or drug is due solely to a placebo effect (which is why placebo’s are usually used in clinical trials of new drugs) all that matters to a patient in pain and his physicians’ that the treatment “works.” So one goal for both physician (or other practioner) and patient is to maximize the placebo potential of any treatment.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 18, 1989
