Placebo Research Paper
When one thinks of the placebo effect, what comes to mind? Many might associate it with something negative. Some might believe it only involves being fooled or tricked, and immediately dismiss it. While there is still much that we do not know about how the placebo works, it is still important to view it open and objectively. I believe the positive effects from the placebo response, vastly outweigh the negative, and one even has the potential to harness the power of the placebo for their own personal gain.
What is the placebo effect exactly? Medicine Net defines it as: “The placebo response. A remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo -- a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution -- can sometimes improve a patient's condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful” (2012). It seems expectations have a vital role in invoking a response. The more you …show more content…
expect something to work, the more likely it is to work. From my understanding, there are two other key factors that affect the placebo. The first being, enthusiasm or “hype” around the effect. If enough people back and support the placebo, especially trusted or authority figures (doctors), it is much more likely to work. The last element that effects placebo, is environment, if the person is in a relaxed, safe environment the placebo is more likely to take effect. One example of the positive power of a placebo response comes from a clinical study testing placebo with fibromyalgia and diabetes patients.
Test subjects were given active medication or an inactive placebo, then told to rate their pain before and after treatment. Fibromyalgia patients saw A 45% improvement in pain in response to the inactive placebo, and diabetes patients observed an even higher rate of 62%. (Hauser et al., 2011). Essentially, they are taking something with absolutely no medical properties, but achieving the same results the real medicine offers. With surprisingly high rate of success as well (around 50%). This shows the very real and beneficial results offered by the placebo. It also makes one wonder if these results can be taken even farther? By manipulating the environment, expectations, and enthusiasm around the placebo, can we amplify these results? Although it might be impossible to find an exact algorithm to maximize results for everyone, I believe there is still room to refine and perfect the factors
involved.
An article titled “pharmegeddon” from the University of California, explores the placebo response in relation to the new generation of “miracle” antipsychotic and antidepressants drugs. When a drug comes into the market, they often offer promises of fast and prominent cures. Thanks to the placebo effect, many people will respond positively to these new drugs, due to the hype surrounding them, and expectations that the drug will work. However, these effects often decline, when it is discovered that the drugs are not as effective as initially perceived, or as widely applicable (Healy, 2012; Moncrieff 2001). What if expectations remained constant around the drug? Even if the drug is not as effective as it claims to be, if you get greater results when you believe it is, does it really matter? Believing in results, even if you know that they are not necessarily real can be viewed as a `form of self-hypnosis, and although one is essentially tricking or lying oneself, the results, I would argue are worth it.
So, if the placebo works on drugs with little to no medical benefits, what if you combined the effect with a drug that actually works? An example for this can be found in antidepressants. Research done for the treatment and prevention of depression, found that only around half of all people who take antidepressents ever see positive results. Of those who do, more than half aren’t actually responding to the drug at all. (Hollon, Thase, & Markowitz, 2002). The majority of people responding positively to antidepressants, can be credited to the placebo effect. In this case, by combining the placebo with a drug that actually works (for some people), the results achieved were more than doubled. This leads me to believe that in some cases, the placebo effect can be even more powerful than actual drugs.
The placebo effect is interesting in the sense that everything that influences a positive response, can also induce a negative one. The placebo relies on heavily on expectations, so what if you expected something to have a negative outcome? If you go into something thinking it won’t work, or something bad will happen, you are setting yourself up for a negative placebo. This works with other people as well, if everyone around you is telling you something is not going to work or could potentially harm you, the placebo can take over and cause just that to happen. How do we avoid this? It seems the only way is to always be conscious of the power of your mind. To try and influence your environment and expectations to be positive, and be aware of the influence other people can have over how you perceive something.
The placebo effect is a powerful response, that can offer all the benefits of medicine/treatments, with none of the side effects. Is it possible to harness this? To self-induce the placebo effect to achieve desired outcomes? This would involve an aspect of self-hypnosis, meaning in order for the placebo effect to work one must trick or hypnotize oneself into believing it will work. That said, much of what makes the placebo effect work, relies on the influence of other people. In order to compensate for this, an individual must strengthen the aspects in which they do have control over. This seems difficult, as one is essentially willing something into working, that they know would not work otherwise. In order for this to be successful, we can benefit from conditioning. According to the Harvard Health Letter , “The placebo effect may also have an element of psychological conditioning: once someone benefits from an intervention, the person starts to associate that intervention with a benefit. The association, and therefore the benefit, may get stronger with additional exposures to the intervention” (2012). It may be possible to re-enforce a placebo response by associating it with the desired outcome obtained through it.
Although there is little research regarding the harnessing of the placebo, I will illustrate a scenario in which it could be useful. Let’s say I am a performer, and I regularly perform in front of large volumes of people. Before going on stage, and while performing, I have terrible anxiety and nervousness that affects my performance. I decide that I would like to overcome this with a self-induced placebo effect. Before each performance, instead of focusing on nerves, I focus on my expectations. I force myself to expect and truly believe I will do great. I expect that I will give a perfect performance with no nerves or anxiety. I convince myself that the stage is a safe and comfortable environment. I tell myself that everyone in the audience also expects the best from me, not only that, they know with certainty that I will give a perfect performance. I know that this will be successful, and am able to rid myself of, or reduce my symptoms. This will require patience, and self-discipline, however, I can reinforce and strengthen the placebo by associating a great performance with an absence of nervousness and anxiety. If this was successful, I would be eliminating my nerves and anxiety without drugs, and solely through the power of my own mind.
What is the placebo effect exactly? Medicine Net defines it as: “The placebo response. A remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo -- a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution -- can sometimes improve a patient's condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful” (2012). It seems expectations have a vital role in invoking a response. The more you …show more content…
expect something to work, the more likely it is to work. From my understanding, there are two other key factors that affect the placebo. The first being, enthusiasm or “hype” around the effect. If enough people back and support the placebo, especially trusted or authority figures (doctors), it is much more likely to work. The last element that effects placebo, is environment, if the person is in a relaxed, safe environment the placebo is more likely to take effect. One example of the positive power of a placebo response comes from a clinical study testing placebo with fibromyalgia and diabetes patients.
Test subjects were given active medication or an inactive placebo, then told to rate their pain before and after treatment. Fibromyalgia patients saw A 45% improvement in pain in response to the inactive placebo, and diabetes patients observed an even higher rate of 62%. (Hauser et al., 2011). Essentially, they are taking something with absolutely no medical properties, but achieving the same results the real medicine offers. With surprisingly high rate of success as well (around 50%). This shows the very real and beneficial results offered by the placebo. It also makes one wonder if these results can be taken even farther? By manipulating the environment, expectations, and enthusiasm around the placebo, can we amplify these results? Although it might be impossible to find an exact algorithm to maximize results for everyone, I believe there is still room to refine and perfect the factors
involved.
An article titled “pharmegeddon” from the University of California, explores the placebo response in relation to the new generation of “miracle” antipsychotic and antidepressants drugs. When a drug comes into the market, they often offer promises of fast and prominent cures. Thanks to the placebo effect, many people will respond positively to these new drugs, due to the hype surrounding them, and expectations that the drug will work. However, these effects often decline, when it is discovered that the drugs are not as effective as initially perceived, or as widely applicable (Healy, 2012; Moncrieff 2001). What if expectations remained constant around the drug? Even if the drug is not as effective as it claims to be, if you get greater results when you believe it is, does it really matter? Believing in results, even if you know that they are not necessarily real can be viewed as a `form of self-hypnosis, and although one is essentially tricking or lying oneself, the results, I would argue are worth it.
So, if the placebo works on drugs with little to no medical benefits, what if you combined the effect with a drug that actually works? An example for this can be found in antidepressants. Research done for the treatment and prevention of depression, found that only around half of all people who take antidepressents ever see positive results. Of those who do, more than half aren’t actually responding to the drug at all. (Hollon, Thase, & Markowitz, 2002). The majority of people responding positively to antidepressants, can be credited to the placebo effect. In this case, by combining the placebo with a drug that actually works (for some people), the results achieved were more than doubled. This leads me to believe that in some cases, the placebo effect can be even more powerful than actual drugs.
The placebo effect is interesting in the sense that everything that influences a positive response, can also induce a negative one. The placebo relies on heavily on expectations, so what if you expected something to have a negative outcome? If you go into something thinking it won’t work, or something bad will happen, you are setting yourself up for a negative placebo. This works with other people as well, if everyone around you is telling you something is not going to work or could potentially harm you, the placebo can take over and cause just that to happen. How do we avoid this? It seems the only way is to always be conscious of the power of your mind. To try and influence your environment and expectations to be positive, and be aware of the influence other people can have over how you perceive something.
The placebo effect is a powerful response, that can offer all the benefits of medicine/treatments, with none of the side effects. Is it possible to harness this? To self-induce the placebo effect to achieve desired outcomes? This would involve an aspect of self-hypnosis, meaning in order for the placebo effect to work one must trick or hypnotize oneself into believing it will work. That said, much of what makes the placebo effect work, relies on the influence of other people. In order to compensate for this, an individual must strengthen the aspects in which they do have control over. This seems difficult, as one is essentially willing something into working, that they know would not work otherwise. In order for this to be successful, we can benefit from conditioning. According to the Harvard Health Letter , “The placebo effect may also have an element of psychological conditioning: once someone benefits from an intervention, the person starts to associate that intervention with a benefit. The association, and therefore the benefit, may get stronger with additional exposures to the intervention” (2012). It may be possible to re-enforce a placebo response by associating it with the desired outcome obtained through it.
Although there is little research regarding the harnessing of the placebo, I will illustrate a scenario in which it could be useful. Let’s say I am a performer, and I regularly perform in front of large volumes of people. Before going on stage, and while performing, I have terrible anxiety and nervousness that affects my performance. I decide that I would like to overcome this with a self-induced placebo effect. Before each performance, instead of focusing on nerves, I focus on my expectations. I force myself to expect and truly believe I will do great. I expect that I will give a perfect performance with no nerves or anxiety. I convince myself that the stage is a safe and comfortable environment. I tell myself that everyone in the audience also expects the best from me, not only that, they know with certainty that I will give a perfect performance. I know that this will be successful, and am able to rid myself of, or reduce my symptoms. This will require patience, and self-discipline, however, I can reinforce and strengthen the placebo by associating a great performance with an absence of nervousness and anxiety. If this was successful, I would be eliminating my nerves and anxiety without drugs, and solely through the power of my own mind.