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“People willingly believe what they want to believe” Gaius Julius Caesar (ancient Roman statesman, dictator, commander).

• Faith is capable of working miracles.
• Faith is a person’s confidence in the truth of something (for example, scientific, political, religious and other ideas).
• Faith is the one who gave birth to and gave birth to the placebo effect.

In general, as you already guessed, our dear readers, today we will reveal this mysterious phenomenon(placebo effect). This means we will find out what gave birth to it, who worked on these issues, and whether there is any benefit from it at all. So, first things first:

Term "placebo effect"(from Latin placebo - getting better) was first used by an American doctor Henry Beecher in 1955, although this effect was noticed back in the 1700s, the actual physiological features were studied only in the 1970s.

Thus, according to research conducted in the 1970s by a group of scientists led by Stanley Milgram(professor at Stanford University): “for patients with anxiety disorders, pills turned out to be the most effective Green colour, less - red, even less - yellow. On the contrary, for depression, pills were more effective yellow color, less - green, ineffective - red.” And yet, the researchers were then unable to draw any clear conclusions from the results of their work.

A lot of interesting things about “placebo” can be gleaned from Dylan Evans books- researcher from the University of Bath (UK) « Placebo. Consciousness takes precedence over matter in modern medicine".

As you already understand, the placebo effect is a very mysterious phenomenon from the field of psychology and physiology, but today it is quite widely known in society, although still poorly understood.

So, the placebo effect is a phenomenon in which human body is looking for ways to get rid of the disease on his own, without the use of effective drugs, but only using their imitators (dummy drugs).

Important! Recovery occurs through faith in the effectiveness of the drug used.

Recently, the placebo effect has become widely practiced in medicine (especially in psychiatry), and sometimes doctors purposefully prescribe placebos to a certain circle of patients (for example, hypochondriacs– people who are overly worried about their health) or excitable people who are constantly worried about something. And as a result, suffering from frequent insomnia. And here the most striking thing is that in such cases it is the “dummy” drug, like nothing else, that has the best effect on improving the patient’s condition (a placebo acts on the body, even if the patient knows that it is a placebo), although it seems obvious that the positive effect of this method of treatment should decrease. But no! This is such a mystery.

But there is still an answer to it, and it lies in a simple one: here the authority of the doctor plays an important role (whether he has the title “honored”, whether he is a professor, etc.), and the decisive role is also played by appearance the tablet itself (its color and shape). In addition to taking medications, such a positive effect may be performing certain exercises that do not give a direct, beneficial effect.

Keep in mind!

1. The placebo effect is much stronger in children than in adults.
2. And in both cases, addiction is possible.
3. The more expensive the medicine, the stronger the placebo effect.
4. The strength of the effect depends on the place of residence (and a striking example of this is the residents of the United States (prone to hypochondria), it is for this reason that vaccination advertising is so widely deployed in this country).
5. Placebos have different effects on different people(for some it can even provoke an asthma attack, but for others, on the contrary, it will alleviate suffering).

“The brain itself can make heaven out of hell and hell out of heaven” John Milton (English poet and thinker).

William Osler, one of the greatest doctors in the world, at the beginning of the century confidently stated that the success of a doctor of any specialization largely depends on his character and behavior, as well as on the patient’s faith in the effectiveness of the medicine and the omnipotence of the doctor.

Norman Cousins in the bestseller "Anatomy of a disease from the patient's point of view" describes in detail (step by step) many examples of the effectiveness of the “placebo”. He constantly emphasizes that the patient’s mental attitude and attitude towards the disease has a huge impact on its course.

Incredible healing cases

Case 1. Strength of metal spokes. In 1801, the British physician John Haygarth doubted the effectiveness of the extremely popular metal knitting needles at that time (they were supposedly made of a special alloy) and therefore endowed with special magical powers that could heal the entire body. Then John Haygarth decides to conduct “his own session” of healing - with ordinary wooden sticks, while passing them off as the most popular ones - miraculous. And what’s most interesting: four out of five of his patients felt significantly better.

Case 2. Brain surgery. There is another very interesting experiment on this topic: in one of the foreign medical clinics, they organized the following test: the first group of people with Parkinson’s disease underwent an operation to transplant special nerve cells into the brain, and the rest of the experiment participants were simply informed that they, too, had undergone a similar operation, although no surgical interventions were performed was not carried out with representatives of the second group. At the same time, double-blind control was carried out, that is, neither the patients themselves nor the medical staff knew who actually received the new cells. And after a year: in both groups, patients began to show a tendency towards recovery.

Case 3. Painkiller. In 1944 (during the battles for Southern Italy), an American military doctor ran out of painkillers, and in order to somehow soothe the soldier’s aching wound, he gave him ordinary water, passing it off as the required medicine, and, surprisingly, the wounded man’s pain subsided.

Case 4: Cancer can be cured. The last example is no less striking in its power of faith: one man, at the age of 61, was diagnosed with cancer (throat cancer). Having learned about his illness, the man lost 44 kg in a short period of time, and day by day it became more and more difficult for him to breathe and swallow. The probability of saving life was 5%. After much deliberation, the doctors finally decide to conduct a course of radiation therapy, under the guidance of Dr. Carl Simonton, who also taught his patient the technique of self-hypnosis - thereby setting him on a direct path to recovery. The man's task was to tell himself every day that his cancer cells were being eliminated from the body through the liver and kidneys. The result was amazing - in just two months the man regained his full weight, strength, and most importantly, the signs of cancer disappeared.

Nocebo “the other side of the coin”

Placebo also has a malicious enemy - it’s called "nocebo"- causing only a deterioration in the patient’s health. There are many shocking examples (even death) of patients, only because he found out what side effects carries the prescribed drug.

All in all, placebo And nocebo- these are two sides of the same coin, and which of them will manifest itself in each specific case depends not only on the patient’s expectations, but largely on the competence (professionalism) of the doctor prescribing these drugs.

There is even a joke on this topic:

• Doctor "from God"
• Doctor "well, with God"
• Doctor "God forbid"

Friends, it’s not for nothing that people say: “trust, but verify.”

Just my opinion: you can’t blindly believe everything, but you can’t deny a lot either. We must try to act sensibly in every situation presented by life.

Please leave your comments and feedback in the line below. We will definitely cover everything that worries you in the coming issues.

Pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money every day on discovering new drugs, and yet some people unknowingly carry the drug in their heads. A placebo is a substance that can play a huge role in the treatment of a person, without having any obvious medicinal properties. Simply put, the placebo effect lies in a person’s faith. Let's find out the principle of the effect of placebo on the human body.

The mysterious word placebo - a cure or not?

The name “placebo” comes from Latin and translates as “to like.” In common parlance, the substance is usually called a “dummy”. So, what does this mysterious word mean? First of all, it is worth saying that a placebo is not a medicine in the medical sense of the word. It does not contain medicinal properties, capable of influencing the body, although in taste and appearance it is no different from real drugs. So how does it work? It's all about the effect on the patient's psyche, or rather, self-hypnosis. For example, a person is prescribed a medicine by a doctor, whom the patient is inclined to blindly believe. The prescribed medicine may look like ordinary tablets, and it will contain vitamin C, which, at most, will slightly increase the patient’s immunity. However, the doctor so persistently praises the medicine of the “latest development” that the person involuntarily believes him, and when the patient diligently takes such pills as prescribed, he suddenly notes that he feels much better. And now he’s already happily rushing to the doctor’s appointment to praise the “newest medicine,” which is actually a placebo.

Definition of placebo in psychology

Placebo is one of the mysteries in the field of psychology. It is not completely known how this substance has a miraculous effect on the body. However, all psychologists agree on one opinion - self-hypnosis and a person’s sincere faith can work miracles. In psychiatry, the pacifier effect is often used to help patients overcome disorders such as depression and insomnia.

How placebo works

Psychologists suggest that as a result of self-hypnosis, the patient’s brain produces a large number of endorphins, which replace the therapeutic effect of the drug. The body goes into a state of fighting the disease, immunity increases and defense mechanisms are activated. All this leads to an improvement in the patient’s condition and possibly even further recovery.

Interesting. One study, which was conducted on subjects with anxiety disorders, showed that this method was possible to work even when patients were told that they were taking a pacifier.

The power of placebo - for whom the effect will be stronger

Of course, the effect of a pacifier will be much stronger if the person is naturally suggestible. It is easy to convince some people of the effectiveness of a drug, but it is more difficult for others. The strength of the effect directly depends on the patient himself. This explains why terminally ill people are ready to visit healers and esotericists. In the hope of being cured, a person is ready to believe in anything.

Advice. If you recognize yourself in this description, then you should think about it. Of course, faith is a great feeling. But blind faith in a pacifier can also have a negative effect on your health.

The pacifier has the strongest effect on children. In the USA, they even produce comic tablets “Obecalp”, containing pure sugar and indicated for “treating children from laziness”.

What types of placebos are there? List of drugs

There are quite a few types of placebos, here are some of the most common:

• Pills
• Syrups
• Lasers
• Injections

In addition, this group also includes medicinal decoctions from herbs, since when taking them, many patients almost instantly notice an improvement in their condition. Some types of massage treatments are also placebo.
As such, there is no list of placebo drugs, but there are drugs whose effectiveness has not been proven, and accordingly there is every reason to doubt the therapeutic effects of these drugs.

• Validol. A medicine that supposedly helps with heart pain. Has a calming, minty effect, but is unlikely to help with a heart attack
• Erespal - available in the form of tablets and syrup. Indicated for use in ARVI. The effectiveness of this product has not been proven
• Novo-passit is more of a homeopathic remedy than a real medicine
• Wobenzym is available in tablet form. According to the manufacturers, it has a miraculous effect on the entire body. Efficacy has not been studied in vitro
• Most drugs for the treatment of colds are placebos and the maximum effect they can have is to bring down the temperature. Some of these: Imunomax, Engystol, Imudon, etc.
• Hilak-Forte, Bifiform and many other probiotics. Doctors in Russia like to prescribe them. Other countries are extremely wary of probiotics

The drugs listed above have not been tested in laboratory conditions. And yet the final decision whether to accept them or not is yours.

When is placebo use appropriate?

Remember that a placebo is not a complete medical treatment. This is just creating an illusion to boost the patient's morale. It is not capable of influencing the clinical picture of the disease. Simply put, if a person has a headache, then after taking a pacifier the headache will go away, but hypertension will remain. The use of the substance is advisable when there is no painkiller at hand and the patient is in pain. In such cases, the placebo will not make the situation worse, but will make the person feel better. The substance is sometimes prescribed to people suffering from anxiety disorder or hypochondriacs who are too fixated on their health. In this case, the placebo effect will fully justify itself.

Important! Unfortunately, the world is designed in such a way that there will always be people who use placebos unscrupulously. The substance is often sold under the guise of medicine to patients with cancer. Passing it off as “the very” remedy that will help you recover. Do not fall for such tricks and always consult a doctor.

And yet, to finally be convinced of the effectiveness of placebos, let’s give an example from life. Some evidence suggests that placebos can have an effect even on terminally ill people. For example, an elderly man was diagnosed with cancer. Immediately after this, he lost his zest for life, doctors predicted his death with a probability of 95 percent. However, one of the patient's doctors did not want to give up. He taught the patient self-hypnosis. Every day the patient had to convince himself that he was on the path to recovery, and his cancer cells were gradually being eliminated from the body through the kidneys. The results of such self-hypnosis exceeded all expectations. Two months later, the man regained all his strength and defeated cancer.
That is why you can talk for a long time about the advisability of placebo treatment, or you can simply set yourself in a positive mood and believe in yourself and your body. After all, as they say, most diseases are generated by our thoughts.

Placebo therapy: video

This video explains in detail the concept of placebo therapy.

Identified in the mid-twentieth century by doctors, but in fact, of a purely psychological nature, the Placebo Effect continues to prove today what possibilities human faith and self-hypnosis can open up.

Religion is not the opium of the people. Religion is a placebo for the people.

Dr. House

Excursion into history

Placebo, in the medical community, is a medicine that does not have healing power (“dummy drug”).

The concept of the “Placebo Effect” arose in the medical literature in 1955, when the American physician Henry Beecher discovered that some patients began to feel better by taking medications that had no medicinal properties at all.

Back during World War II, while working as an anesthesiologist in a military hospital, he noticed that sometimes the effects of saline solution and real medicine were almost the same. After the war, Henry Beecher began to seriously study this phenomenon, collecting the findings of his work in the publication “Potent Placebo” in 1955.

The key to this phenomenon is not only the faith of the patient and the attending physician in the power of the medicine, but also the faith of the entire staff. Many experiments have been conducted in placebo research, one of which is particularly recorded in the history of psychiatry.

In 1953, in a psychiatric hospital near Washington, where residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were treated, a group of patients with severe manifestations of aggression were urgently hospitalized. This group of patients was supervised by psychiatrist E. Mendel.

The doctor decided to test the new tranquilizer reserpine using a double-blind experiment. Some of the patients were given the real drug, and some were given ordinary sweet pills. The doctors themselves did not keep track of which group received which pills. And all the patients were sure that they were taking a tranquilizer.

A few months later, from the calm behavior of the patients, it became clear that the new remedy was quite productive. The renowned psychiatrist was impressed by the effects of reserpine, but it soon became clear that many patients were receiving placebos.

Mendel soon realized that the patients' condition returned to normal only because of his belief in improving the behavior of the patients. He began to treat his charges calmly, and they responded to him in the same way.

Secrets of the placebo effect

One of the secrets of this unique phenomenon is associated with the ability of a person, or rather a patient, to succumb to suggestion and unconsciously trust the attending physician and psychologist.

Thanks to the effect of a placebo, doctors determine the quality of a medicinal drug. If one patient took a placebo and another took the real medicine, but the result was approximately the same, then the drug does not have a sufficient positive effect.

Along with placebo, another directly opposite phenomenon is known in modern medicine - the nocebo effect. It can manifest itself in the form of nausea, allergies, dizziness and increased heart rate in patients taking the “fake medicine”. According to strange statistics, the nocebo effect is caused by nervous hospital staff, and by prescribing medicine to calm patients, the doctor thereby calms himself down.

This phenomenon is called " placebo rebound».

The placebo effect is also the basis of homeomatic medicines that are popular today. When talking and simulating the treatment process in in this case, all human reserves are activated.

The placebo effect has become a new vector not only in medicine and psychiatry, but also in the development of pharmaceutical products. For example, many drug manufacturers are trying to produce bright, large pills that are much more effective than small, “nondescript” pills. And patients calmly use drugs from familiar companies, whose names they hear on television, rather than products with the same content, but from unknown manufacturers.

Self-hypnosis activates the release of endorphin, which sometimes replaces the effect provided by the drug, and includes a “mobilization function,” which implies strengthening the immune system. The strength of the placebo effect depends on the person's exposure to the influence and the ability to produce the necessary chemicals.

The effect of the placebo effect on different categories of people

The placebo phenomenon works in all people, but the strength of its effect varies depending on the person's personality type.

For example:

1. In children, the placebo phenomenon is much more pronounced than in adults;
2. The placebo effect is stronger on the emotional and dependent than on the distrustful

In 1944, during the battles for southern Italy, American military doctor Henry Beecher runs out of morphine. He injects a wounded soldier with saline instead of painkillers and is surprised to note that the pain goes away somewhere, despite complete absence active substance. This was one of the first things done medical descriptions the placebo effect, the roots of which can be found in ancient healing rituals.

Why does a substance that does not have any medicinal properties, nevertheless works, and sometimes quite effectively?

Often the placebo effect is considered just a hindrance - a kind of subjective illusion caused by self-deception. A medicine must “really” work, otherwise it is not a medicine. Official medicine sweeps aside everything subjective, which is why doctors stigmatize homeopathy and insist on strict clinical trials, which are designed to exclude the effect of self-hypnosis.

But quite rigorous scientific research conducted in recent decades shows that the placebo effect is not a deception or a fiction, its mechanism is much deeper. A placebo affects the nervous, hormonal and even immune systems, restructuring the functioning of the brain, and through it other functions of the body. Improvements are observed in asthma, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal and nervous disorders, anxiety and depression.

It turns out that simply believing in healing has healing potential. Of course, the placebo effect has significant limitations (it’s still not worth treating cancer with sugar balls), but its positive effects are at least worthy of attention. Research into the placebo effect shows that our bodies are much more closely connected to our minds than is commonly believed.

How to treat autism with salt solution

In 1996, Carolee Horvath, a gastroenterologist at the University of Maryland, performs an endoscopy on a two-year-old boy with autism. After the procedure, the child suddenly feels much better. His sleep and bowel function are improving, but the changes are not limited to this: the boy begins to communicate more, maintains eye contact, and repeats words on cards.

The parents decide that the problem is a hormone called secretin, which is given before the procedure to activate the pancreas. Several more test injections are carried out with the same effect, and soon amazing news flashes across the media: a cure for autism has been found! Hundreds of families are eager to get the treasured substance, and reports are increasing about children who have been helped by secretin like no other drug.

But the effectiveness of the hormone had to be confirmed by clinical trials. In such studies, the effect of the drug is compared with a placebo, and neither patients nor doctors need to know where the dummy is and where the active substance is. If there is no difference in the result, then the drug is considered ineffective.

Secretin did not pass this test. The amazing effect of the hormone turned out to be an illusion. But something else is surprising: even those subjects who were simply given injections of saline during clinical trials actually felt better - their symptoms of autism decreased by about 30%.

Secretin really works, but the substance itself had nothing to do with it.

The placebo effect is usually attributed to the patient's expectations and beliefs. But hardly Small child with autism can understand what kind of medicine they are given and what effects they should expect from it. Later, researchers came to the conclusion that it had to do with the parents, the situation with taking the medicine, and the hype that was raised around secretin in the media. As a result, parents and doctors attributed any positive changes in the child’s behavior to the effect of the drug, more often they came into contact with him and tried to involve him in interaction.

Secretin changed the perception and environment so that the signs of autism became less obvious. This does not mean that it is actually treated with this hormone. But this doesn't make the effect any less surprising.

How does a placebo work?

Parkinson's disease, which often appears in old age, makes movement stiff, causes limbs to tremble and affects a person's posture. The cause of the disease is the destruction of cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Symptoms of Parkinsonism can be partially relieved by using a substance called levedopa, which the body converts into dopamine.

But in many cases, a placebo works just as effectively. Canadian neurologist John Stessl showed how after taking dummy pills, patients' brains are filled with dopamine, as if they had taken the real medicine. The tremor immediately disappears, the body straightens. The very thought that you have taken the active substance eliminates the symptoms of the disease. This effect can be traced down to a single neuron.

From this example, it becomes clear that a placebo causes the brain to produce additional dopamine. The pain-relieving effects, in turn, are provided by the production of endorphins, which are sometimes called “natural painkillers.”

In fact, the placebo effect is not a single reaction, but a whole set of effects that use the natural capabilities of our body.

Italian neurologist Fabrizio Benedetti studied the effect of a placebo on altitude sickness, which occurs as a result of oxygen deprivation in thin air. It turned out that the placebo reduces the production of prostaglandins, which dilate blood vessels to saturate the body with oxygen, and at the same time lead to severe headaches, nausea and dizziness. The subjects breathed dummy oxygen, and the levels of prostaglandins in the blood dropped.

It is believed that placebos only work effectively if the patient believes that their medicine is “real.” This raises serious ethical quandaries: is it possible to prescribe a fictitious medicine while pretending that it is not fictitious at all?

Professor Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School in Boston tried to solve this problem. Half of his patients with irritable bowel syndrome were told that the capsules they were given had no active substances, but they could work through the influence of the mind on the body, triggering self-healing processes. As a result, their condition improved much more than those who were not treated at all. The same thing happened in patients with depression and migraines.

University of Michigan anthropologist Dan Moerman believes that the active ingredient in any therapy is meaning.

It can be assumed that passes and spells used to make no less an impression than today's white coats and diagnostic categories. From this point of view, the difference between “real” and “fictitious” no longer looks so impenetrable. The placebo effect is a semantic reaction that moves to the level of the body and receives physical embodiment.

It is the semantic effect that explains the following features of the placebo effect:

Large tablets are more effective than small ones.
- Expensive pills are more effective than cheap ones.
- The more radical the impact, the stronger the effect: surgery is better - injections, which are better than capsules, which are better than tablets.
- Colored tablets are better than white ones, Blue colour calms, red relieves pain, green relieves anxiety.
- The placebo effect differs from culture to culture and from individual to individual.

This also explains the limitations of the placebo effect. It may relieve some symptoms, change arterial pressure, improve well-being, but will not saturate the blood with oxygen and will not expel a pathogenic infection from the lungs (although it can enhance immune reactions). The placebo effect appears to be strongest in mental disorders such as addiction, depression and anxiety.

In 2009, psychologist Irving Kirsch found that the popular antidepressants that literally flooded the US pharmaceutical market were almost the same in effectiveness as placebos. Valium, which is often used for anxiety disorders, does not work if patients do not know they are taking it.

Almost all doctors sometimes prescribe placebos to their patients. In a 2008 American study, half of those surveyed admitted this; in the Russian context, this figure would probably be even higher. Here are just a few popular drugs whose action is based on the placebo effect: Arbidol, Afobazol, Anaferon, Oscillococcinum, most nootropics and many other drugs.

The placebo effect also has a dark side - the so-called. “nocebo effect” (from the Latin “to harm”). After reading the instructions for the drug, you may find yourself experiencing unpleasant side effects, which otherwise would not have appeared. If you believe that breaking a taboo entails certain death, and then accidentally touch the chief's food, you will probably actually die. Perhaps this is how the evil eye and voodoo curses work.

The mechanisms of action of placebo and nocebo are identical, and both effects can accompany any medical procedure. This is the mechanism by which our psyche interprets current events, attributing a good or bad meaning to them.

It is impossible to get rid of the placebo effect in medicine, just as it is impossible to separate physical health from psychological well-being.

It would be a mistake to think that “all illnesses come from the mind,” subconscious traumas or wrong thinking. But consciousness does have healing properties. To recognize this, we no longer need to slide into mysticism, abandoning the search for evidence and rational thinking.

What does it mean? From Latin, “placebo” is translated as “flattery, I will please” and means it is a physiologically inert substance that is used as a drug. Moreover, the positive therapeutic effect of this substance is based on the psychological subconscious expectation of the patient.

The placebo effect manifests itself depending on a number of factors: the degree of suggestibility of the patient, the authority of the attending physician, the size and color of the capsule, and so on.

Reality or Myth

The term “placebo effect” was discovered by American physician Henry Beecher in 1995. It was he who discovered that a third of patients are cured by taking pills that do not contain active substances. The placebo effect depends on the person's condition and his expectations. Some argue that placebos only work on suggestible patients, but this opinion is incorrect.

The positive effect of drug treatment largely depends on psychotherapeutic factors. The right attitude can enhance the therapeutic effect of pharmacological agents.

The placebo effect - what does it mean from a pharmacological point of view?

Placebo pills are used as a control drug when testing new medicines. A group of subjects is given a test drug that has previously been tested on animals. The other group receives a placebo. For a drug to be considered effective, the effect of its use must exceed the placebo effect.

The placebo effect - what does it mean from the point of view of pharmacotherapy?

In some cases, doctors prescribe placebos to patients who are prone to self-hypnosis of painful manifestations. This avoids unnecessary use of pharmaceuticals and possible complications from taking medications. By the way, the positive effect of homeopathic remedies can also be explained by the placebo effect.

In principle, a placebo is not only a substance or, for example, an imitation of a procedure. You can even get the placebo effect through conversation, the main thing is to mobilize the patient’s beliefs in the right direction.

The placebo effect - what does it mean from the point of view of evidence-based medicine?

Many drugs have not yet undergone placebo-controlled trials. At the same time, many medications act largely due to the “placebo component”. This explains the fact that large and bright tablets turn out to be more effective, and advertised drugs cure faster than little-known medications.

In psychotherapy, the placebo effect is achieved through suggestion. Therapeutic suggestion does not require special skills, since the patient’s problem of disbelief is easily solved by linking information to an actual object. It may be an injection or a pill that has no real effect on the body. The patient is informed that the drug he is taking has a certain effect on the body, and, despite its ineffectiveness, the expected effect begins to manifest itself to one degree or another.

Physiologically, the effect of a placebo can be explained as follows: as a result of suggestion, the human brain begins to produce substances corresponding to this effect, which partially replace the effect of the drug. The second factor that ensures the effectiveness of placebos is the strengthening of general immunity, which fights the disease naturally.