What is a placebo and why it is often more effective than the drug itself

2023-08-17 20:24:00, Shëndeti CNA

The term placebo refers to activities or substances that resemble forms of therapy but have no direct effect on the patient's bodily or brain functions. They may involve taking pills that are nothing but sugar, injecting a saline solution, or using fake instruments, such as fake needles that resemble those used in acupuncture procedures.

Some people who take a placebo usually report changes in their condition—a reduction in pain, renewed energy, or a general improvement in physical and psychological well-being—that cannot be attributed to the physical nature of the drug or activity. . This is called the placebo effect.

Although this effect can hinder the search for effective medical treatments, it can be a potentially useful tool for testing drugs and other health therapies if used properly. But what causes the placebo effect?

It is not entirely clear why some people experience what is known as the 'placebo effect', although clues can be found on how seemingly insignificant differences between similar treatments can produce different results.

For example, a number of studies have shown that the external appearance of a fake pill can influence our impression of its effect on the body, acting as a stimulant or depressant depending on their color. Like the shape of the pill, its price and how it's marketed can also affect how we perceive its strength.

On the other hand, the placebo effect seems to be stronger today than it was in the past. These impressions may vary depending on cultural background. For example, white Americans tend to view white pills as analgesics, while African Americans view them as stimulants.

Materials associated with pain, such as poison ivy-like leaves, can produce unpleasant sensations, in what is considered the 'nocebo' effect. Without any possible chemical link between the substance and the physiological changes, placebos most likely affect our perceptions of our health on a psychological level.

In other words, our impression of a treatment—as inherited from our culture—determines how we experience its effects on our bodies. This may involve an element of classical conditioning, a psychological phenomenon that explains why we learn to associate a sensation or emotion with a particular stimulus.

For example, the feeling of hunger when we hear a lunch bell or anxiety when we smell the disinfectant of the hospital waiting room. Expectations can determine how we pay attention to our bodies. Undergoing a medical ritual, such as taking a pill every day, can frame our experience of a condition as improvement, reducing our focus on pain as discomfort.

Hormonal and neurotransmitter responses, however, may also play a role in directly improving well-being by increasing levels of chemicals that make us feel good. A 2012 study found that people with a variation in an enzyme involved in breaking down dopamine experienced stronger placebo effects, implying a role for reward areas in our brains.

The term placebo comes from the Latin, which means "to please". It entered medical jargon at the end of the 18th century, referring to watered-down treatments intended to satisfy incurable patients without the need to use up real drugs.

By the end of the 19th century, this concept was being applied to controls in medical experiments. Today, placebos are still used as comparisons in medical trials to determine the extent to which perceived benefits in study subjects are the result of the experimental therapy, or simply a feature of the placebo effect.

The effect itself can also be used to explain why many contemporary and traditional medical rituals and treatments seem to work despite the lack of bioactive mechanisms. Similarly, the nocebo effect helps us understand why many people may experience discomfort from a treatment, such as a vaccine, for no apparent reason.

In recent years, researchers have discovered that the placebo effect can still develop in some people, even when the recipient knows that a particular drug treatment has no active ingredients or mechanisms./ Adapted from CNA