Medicinet.com defines the placebo effect as
It’s the kiss a mom plants on her toddler’s “boo-boo.” This could also be called the power of positive thinking - nothing new. The Talmud, the ancient compendium of Jewish thought, said, "Where there is hope, there is life." In other words, thinking positive. Science has been aware of the placebo effect since at least the 1950s. Anesthesiologist Henry Beecher published his pioneering meta-analysis of 26 studies, “The Powerful Placebo,” in 1955. Beecher concluded that an average of 32% of patients responded to placebo, receiving measurable physiological effects. The study participants exhibited increased pulse rate, increased blood pressure, and faster reaction speeds, when told they have taken a stimulant. When participants were told they had taken a sleep-producing drug, they had the opposite effects. Study into the placebo effect is ongoing. There are whole departments at prestigious teaching hospitals dedicated to the study of placebos. Studies are continuing to show that humans react positively to a charismatic healer even if that healer gives the patient absolutely nothing. After all, the word “placebo” comes from the Latin for “I shall please.” Researchers are studying the mechanism by which placebo effect works. In a 2017 study Dr Marian van der Meulen, neuropsychologist at the University of Luxembourg, explained,
Interestingly enough, people can experience the placebo effect even when they know they’re receiving a fake medication or procedure. Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has been studying these “open-label placebos,” for several years.
Of course, placebos don’t work to lower cholesterol or cure cancer, but they can work for symptoms like pain, nausea, or fatigue. And the longer the trial, the greater the placebo effect. This is becoming a problem in studies because subjects in clinical trials often experience a higher response to legitimate drugs than they should, skewing results of studies. Oddly enough, this seems to be happening more in the U.S. than in other countries. However, most patients can’t control their own placebo response very well. In other words, people can’t just “think positively” and treat their own ailments very effectively. It usually requires some kind of healer or doctor or guru to administer the “drug” for the placebo response to be noticeable. REFERENCES University of Luxembourg, "Pain, Emotions and the Placebo Effect," ScienceDaily, August 29, 2017, accessed August 30, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/SciDaily-Placebo Mallika Marshall, MD, "A Placebo Can Work Even When You Know It's a Placebo," Harvard Health Blog, June 23, 2016, accessed July 30, 2017, http://healthHarvard-Placebo. Peter Dockrill, "The 'Placebo Effect' Is Getting Even Stronger With Time, Study Finds," ScienceAlert, October 8, 2015, accessed July 30, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/SciAlert-placeboStronger. Quora, "The Power And Problems Of The Placebo Response," Forbes, March 23, 2017, accessed July 30, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/Forbes-PlacebPowrProb. Jennifer Jo Thompson, Cheryl Ritenbaugh, and Mark Nichter, "Reconsidering the Placebo Response from a Broad Anthropological Perspective," Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, March 2009, accessed July 30, 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730465/. Want more? Buy the book: Scam-Proof: Good Information & Critical Thinking for an Evidence-Based Life. Amazon - $1.99 Kindle, $6.25 paperback
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