Research Shows That Placebo Actually Works

25 days ago

You might have heard of the placebo effect. Yeah, that result you get when you drink a certain type of miracle water and you are better because the miracle water work (like....) without using any medications. This is the feeling that a particular thing that isn't related to solving the problem a person has help to solve the problem or is perceived to solve the problem because the person believed it would. It is usually common with people who are given a different pill but they are told they are given the pills they expect after which they feel signs of improvement whereas they weren't given the original medication.

It has become something that scientists are beginning to study because it is seen that different imaginary substance cause the body to release different chemicals that then have different effects on the body and this often depends on what is thought to be given to the patients. It has been seen that an anti-inflammatory placebo works differently from an antibiotic placebo, or an oxygen placebo, and an opioid placebo. It now gives the term all placebos aren't created equally, and so all results aren't the same.

ccnull

Before you start to say that placebos do not work, let me let you know that they do work. The fact that people feel better sometimes after being given a medication that is believed to be the medication for their condition whereas it is is very impressive and that is the placebo effect and scientists are looking into this, and that is why studies have been ongoing.

In a meta-analysis that covered 152 publications covering about 25000 participants found that placebo medications were as effective as drugs. It doesn't mean that the patient would get the expected result all the times but when it does work, it does it well. In the case of pain, placebos tend to do similar job to the real treatment when they work but this might not be the same for other medical issues like Nausea, and this is because medical issues like pain are subjective to the patient only sharing their experience to a doctor while medical conditions can be view medical issues that are binary concern. So placebos are more effective in treating subjective illnesses.

pickpik

Other studies showed that a placebo being more expensive works better at reducing pain. The researchers gave the patient pain shocks after which they gave them opioid placebos and administer the pain shock again to identify if the pain changed. Each of the Opioid placebos were given different price tags and so patients believed in the price and the study showed that the cheap placebo wasn't so effective at reducing pain compared to the expensive one.

Another type of placebo that isn't fully placebo is the brand name effect. Researchers decided to heat up participants hands 10 times do they feel pain and told them they would be giving them either aspirin or a made up generic 1A pharma pill prior to thre next heat being applied to the hand. When the heat test was done again, the Aspirin Placebo took away more pain than the 1A pharma placebo did. The study researchers also used fMRI to check how the brain responded to brand name placebo and it was seen that the prefrontal cortex was more active with the brand name placebo than the generic placebo. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision making and memory.

Flickr

A meta-analysis also showed that the more a placebo is being taken the more effective the results are. The meta-analysis looked at 3000 participants who were treated for ulcers, and it showed that patients who took their medications more often were going to heal faster than normal as people who took the placebos four times a day fully recovered by 4 weeks compared to people who took the placebo 2 times a day. The researchers then concluded that receiving more treatment puts a person in a state of mind of being cared for more which triggers improved healing thoughts causing your body to trigger the immune system to function in that state.

More research still needs to be done on this but something is certain, Placebos work depending on the type of illness and the result expected. Different placebos have different effect on the body. Telling people it is a strong pain reliever without giving a pain reliever can actually work and this is just some kind of preconditioning.