The Terrible Danger of the Placebo Effect
When we’re in pain or distress, our first course of action is to see a health professional. We don’t mind waiting for an hour or so just to get that small piece of paper that contains the magic bullet for our illness. We don’t worry much about what’s in the medicine the doctor will prescribe. We simply trust what our doctor says.
But how much does “trust” affect the healing process? What if after taking the medicine, you found out that nothing has changed in your condition although you felt better?
Understanding the Placebo Effect
We often come across the term ‘placebo effect’ when reading medical journals. Sometimes, we hear it from researchers and scientists being interviewed on TV. But what does the placebo effect really mean? According to Dr Steven Novella, director of General Neurology at Yale University’s School of Medicine, placebo effect was for many years considered as the nuisance effect that needed to be controlled in clinical trials. However, it was recently redefined as the key to understanding as the “healing that arises from the medical ritual in the context of the patient\provider relationship and the power of imagination, trust and hope.” In a simpler explanation, the placebo effect happens when a therapy makes you feel better because you believed it will.
In medical treatments, placebo often works best even if in reality, they don’t have any physiological effect at all. Studies found that patients who take placebo medications do better than those who are not compliant with their treatments. When these placebos are hard to obtain, more expensive, and or considered valuable to the patient, the more effective they become.
Placebo Effects Can Kill You
Scientific studies show that psychological manipulation makes patients feel better. But does it also promote physical healing?
Just by seeing their doctors and being reassured that everything possible is being done to restore their health, patients already feel hopeful and at ease. Dr Novella suggests that patients are often able to convince themselves that placebos are effective as actual medications, particularly for chronic pain. But even though the “belief” that they will feel better stimulates the natural painkillers in the body (endorphins), the actual pain medication is still more reliable, he added.
When testing a placebo’s effect, Dr Novella said it is important to look at how diseases can fluctuate overtime. In chronic pain for instance, there are periods when the symptoms are at their highest levels and there are periods when they are very much tolerable. If the placebo is given when the pain is at its worst, it would result in a positive outcome because the pain would have subsided, he argues. It’s purely an illusion.”
A ten-year study, which compared the effects of actual treatments with that of placebos found that there were no medical improvements in patients who took placebos and no treatments at all. But patients who took placebo medications reported they felt better. Despite this, the evidence that placebo promotes healing is still limited, Dr Novella argued.
Just because placebo medicines provide pain relief, it doesn’t always follow that they cure the underlying disease that causes the symptoms. The benefit is purely psychological, not physiological. According to Dr Novella, unsupported beliefs may lead to real suffering, even death of patients.
Dear Readers,
What’s your opinion on the placebo effect? Do you think the use of such treatment is ethical?
Share your comments below!
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