The Healing Power of the Placebo

The will power of the human mind has kept people alive that should have been dead. On the other hand, giving up on the will to live has sent many to a premature grave.

“The Power of the Placebo” is a documentary film about exactly how placebos work. The fact is that “dummy pills” do indeed work and sometimes far better than anyone could have imagined and with no side effects.

For example, trials show people often react to a placebo in nearly the identical manner as an actual drug. Placebos have been shown to produce dopamine release and other chemical responses, mimicking the effects of drugs, without actually taking an active ingredient.

By definition, a placebo is an inert substance that has no effect on your body. In medical research, placebos such as sugar pills are used as controls against which the effects of experimental drugs, also in the form of pills, are measured.

The placebo-effect, in which a patient believes he or she is getting an actual drug and subsequently improves despite receiving no active substance at all, has become a well-recognized phenomenon.

It also works with surgical procedures. Just like drugs, placebo or sham surgery, has been shown to produce results that can be equal to actual surgery, even though the physical problem is in no way addressed!

How Does the Placebo Effect Work?

We now know the placebo effect is real. But what causes it? How does it work?

Writing in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology in 2011, the researchers noted the following observations:

1. First, as the placebo effect is basically a psychosocial context effect, these data indicate that different social stimuli, such as words and rituals of the therapeutic act, may change the chemistry and circuitry of the patient's brain

2. Second, the mechanisms that are activated by placebos are the same as those activated by drugs, which suggests a cognitive/affective interference with drug action

3. Third, if prefrontal functioning is impaired, placebo responses are reduced or totally lacking, as occurs in dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

By using brain imaging technology during placebo tests, researchers have been able to show that even when a placebo is used, your brain still responds according to expectations. For example, in trials involving placebos for pain relief, the participant's brains release natural opioids that provide opioid-mediated pain control. So the placebo effect is tapping into the same pain control centers as opioid drugs.

These Other Observations have Been Made With Placebos:

1. Capsules are more effective than tablets

2. Large capsules are more effective than small capsules

3. Expensive medications are more effective than cheap medications

4. Red pills are most effective for treating pain, while blue pills are most effective when treating anxiety.

The bizarre exception to this is if you’re an Italian male. Bright blue is the color of the Italian soccer team, associated with “passion, excitement, and heartache,” so for Italians, blue pills have the converse effect, according to the researchers in this film.

Another strange finding was that some people can improve even if they know that they are taking a placebo.

So how much is the benefit of any medical treatment or procedure due to the treatment or procedure and how much is due to the placebo effect?

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