Placebo & Nocebo

We've all heard of the placebo effect... I think. That's when they do controlled studies and they give one group of people a certain medication to help with some disease or medical issue. And they give another group, the control group, a sugar pill instead of medicine, but tell them that they are receiving medicine. Then they compare the two groups. You would expect that the medicated group would see some improvement (if the drug works) and that the placebo group would see no effect whatsoever, since all they are receiving is sugar pills. Well, there's something called the placebo effect which means that the placebo group often does see some improvement, and it is because that group believes that they are receiving medicine... so someone that makes a difference.

Now, they've done studies on the nocebo effect... The idea is this... you expose a group to some pain and ask them to rate their pain. Then you give them a painkiller (via IV) and tell them they are receiving a pain killer and ask them to rate their pain (it's lower than before). Then, you expose them to the pain again, give them the pain killer (via IV), but tell them they are receiving nothing for the pain... and ask them to rate their pain... and they rate their pain as almost as high as the first time... That's the nocebo effect. Even if the body receives a pain killer, if the person doesn't believe they are receiving a pain killer... or don't believe that it will make a difference... then it won't. This could explain why so many chronic pain sufferers, who go from doctor to doctor, seeking relief from their pain... get no relief. After a while, they begin to believe that nothing will make any difference... and so it doesn't...

Both the placebo and nocebo effect depend on our beliefs... Our mind and its beliefs can influence our brain and our body... Kind of cool...

And now there's another study that says you can get an even more powerful result by telling people that they are getting a placebo, telling them about the placebo effect, and encouraging them in positive thinking... Huh... go figure...