What is the placebo effect and how it works

The phenomenon of the placebo effect remained for a long time linked to clinical research, in which it was necessary to compare a group of patients with the real treatment that was going to be tested with a simulator: placebo. It may happen that pain can be relieved by having taken a substance that is believed to be a medicine, but in reality it is inert, without active substance, and, therefore, it cannot have any therapeutic effect.

Therefore, even a compressed sugar, starch and corn, can cause a feeling of well -being and efficacy of an alleged therapy. It really happens, although there are still many mysterious aspects about how this phenomenon works. In this Psychology-online article, we will deepen the subject to understand What is the placebo effect and how it works.

1. What is the placebo effect
2. How the placebo effect works
3. The effects of placebo
4. The placebo effect and alternative medicine

What is the placebo effect

A placebo is an inert substance or a Medical treatment without any therapeutic property, While the placebo or placebo response effect is the consequence of its administration. This effect consists of an organic or mental change related to the symbolic meaning attributed to an event or object in the field of health.

¿What is the placebo effect of a medicine? This term placebo derives from the Latin verb pleasure, which literally means "I will like". In medicine refers to any inert substance, biologically inactive, without intrinsic therapeutic capacity, the patient is presented as an effective remedy and then administered to induce psychotherapeutic suggestion or to make comparisons with medications in clinical trials.

Probably, the most complete definition of placebo is provided by the doctor to.K. Shapiro: Any procedure deliberately applied to obtain an effect or that, although there is no knowledge of it, acts on the patient or on the symptom or disease, but that objectively lacks any specific activity with respect to the condition object of the treatment. This procedure It can be applied with or without medical directives, regardless of the type of medication used.

How the placebo effect works

Attempts to explain why placebo operates have involved scientists of behavior and biologists in the last half of the twentieth century. The placebo effect and its principles of functioning have been predominantly understood and interpreted in psychological terms.

If you wonder how the placebo effect works, it is an underlying psychosomatic mechanism in the sense that the nervous system, in response to the full meaning of expectations given to prescribed placebian therapy, induces neurovegetative and produces numerous endorphins, hormones, Mediators, capable of modifying its perception of pain, His hormonal balances, his cardiovascular response and his immune response.

When the placebo effect is manifested

An inalienable requirement for the placebo effect to manifest is the autosugestion of the one who takes it. In other words, the patient must convince himself that he is taking effective treatment and trusting him, or at least he must be induced to believe it by the doctor who prescribes the treatment. In this article, we tell you more about how the human mind works.

It is important to underline that the placebo effect It is due to the psychosocial context in which the patient is treated. It consists of any object or person related to treatment, capable of communicating with the patient who is receiving treatment and, therefore, it is expected that in the near future there will be a reduction in symptoms.

The effects of placebo

Until recently, much of the therapeutic effects of medicine were due to the placebo effect, for example, to the strange mixtures prepared with blood or animal parts, etc. However, when talking about the therapeutic effect of placebo, we must not make the error of attributing any clinical improvement observed in patients who take it. The effects of placebo may be due to many other factors:

• Natural improvement and spontaneous: It has been observed that many patients tend to go to the doctor in the most acute phase of the disease, which would then tend to improve spontaneously for their natural course.
• Independent factors: a new love, a gain, a vacation, etc. These situations lead him to perceive an improvement in his health, while, in other cases, he can report the benefits obtained only because he intends to please the doctor.

These are some of the examples of the placebo effect. In fact, to measure the placebo effect it is necessary to exclude a series of factors that have nothing to do with the real placebo effect.

The placebo effect and alternative medicine

The placebo effect can be the link that unites the defenders and detractors of the calls alternative medicines. In the varied and unequal group of alternative medicines, there are all those therapeutic practices whose efficiency It has not been subject to a controlled clinical control or that has not overcome it.

The fact that the effectiveness of an alternative medicine cannot be demonstrated through the randomized clinical trials mentioned above, does not necessarily mean that it is totally useless for the patient: the placebo effect could explain positive experiences of doctors and patients who decide successfully resorting to alternative treatments.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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