Mark LeBlanc1/25/15

The placebo effect is a beneficial change in health caused by a patient's belief in an

otherwise ineffective treatment or medicine. One major advantage to using placebo drugs in

clinical research is their usefulness in benchmarking. In other words, giving one group “sugar

pills” and one group an actual drug allows researchers to compare the effectiveness of the drug to

those who were administered a placebo. However, in these control groups, sometimes

participants will experience improvements in health despite not actually receiving any drugs, one

of the most common manifestations of the placebo effect. This creates problems for scientists

who want to test the effectiveness of an experimental drug. If some participants are showing

improvements by simply taking a placebo, how much of the improvement in the other group is

coming from the actual drug as opposed to their belief in the drug? To solve this problem, some

scientists recommend creating three groups; one group that receives placebo, one group that

receives the drug, and one group which is left entirely untreated. Research by Dr. Kaptchuk from

the article found that those who received a placebo showed more improvement in their Irritable

Bowel Syndrome than those who received nothing, even though the placebo group was told in

advance they were not receiving actual medication.

Because the placebo effect is psychological, in order for a placebo treatment to work, the

patient must truly believe that the treatment will work. This was demonstrated in a study which

used neuroimaging, a process which allows scientists to monitor what is happening inside of a

person’s body in real time. In the study, patients with Parkinson’s Disease were injected with salt

water (saline solution) but told they were receiving a real drug. The study found that the placebo

not only reduced the symptoms of Parkinson’s, but also aided in the creation of dopamine which

Parkinsons destroys. In the 1970s, endorphins were discovered which helps explain the

effectiveness of placebos. Because the brain can create drugs similar to opiates, believing in the

power of the drug may cause the brain to synthesize these chemicals, promoting sense of overall

well-being in the individual and giving scientific substantiation to the placebo effect. However,

there is a large amount of dissent in the medical community over the validity of administering

placebos because every patient reacts differently to them. For some, they work wonders, for

others, they do not work at all. In spite of numerous research projects, medical practitioners still

cannot figure out why placebos vary so widely in terms of effectiveness.

I believe wholeheartedly in the placebo effect, not only in the form of sugar pills, but as

Kaptchuk puts it, in the “suggestion, ritual, and belief” of medicine. As a child I was convinced

that if my mother kissed my “boo-boo” it would feel better, and despite the utter lack of

medicinal properties in my mother’s lips, they reduced the pain I felt from a number of minor

injuries. More evidence for the placebo effect comes from the medicine of yesterday. Without

the placebo effect, much of the medicine which was practiced prior to the nineteenth century

would have been incredibly ineffective. Without the placebo effect, “the 4 humors” would have

been disregarded as ridiculous; instead Greek, Roman, and Islamic civilizations accepted

humorism as medical fact, a trend which continued well into the nineteenth century in the form

of bloodletting. In fact, many people in days of old had to recover not with the help of their

doctor’s orders, but in spite of their doctor’s orders. From my mother’s kisses to the chants of a

witchdoctor, I believe that the placebo effect is a very real and very powerful force which can

help in places that modern medicine cannot.