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Anna Zuccolillo

Mr. Ryan

English

8 December 2017

The Placebo Effect

A sugar pill can make you sleep, it can make you more awake, help you with depression,

high blood pressure, and a number of other things. This crazy phenomenon is called the placebo

effect. Weve known it existed for hundreds of years; weve known the factors that cause it to

happen, but what we didnt know is how it happens.

The placebo effect is tricking the mind into thinking a medication is real when in reality it

is just a sugar pill, water injection, etc. Placebos cant cure patients with cancer, but they can help

with depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, pain, and others symptoms.

The reason this works is simple. When we have a disease or something with our body is

not right, we are stressed and worried. As you might know, our brain communicates with every

single cell in our body via hormones, so, when we are stressed, the amygdala turns on a number

of different organisms which releases stress hormones provoking a stress response. These stress

reactions are very common in our bodies; the average human gets fifty reactions per day. 1

Everything changes when the doctors come with a remedy. By definition, placebo is in

greek, I shall please. 2 We feel relieved, we feel hope, we feel happy. Once that happens, the

nucleus system finally feels relaxed; triggering the relaxation response. The parasympathetic ner-

vous system turns on and releases a number of different natural healing hormones such as

1Is there scientific proof we can heal ourselves? | Lissa Rankin, MD | TEDxAmericanRiviera.
YouTube, TEDx, 18 Dec. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWQfe__fNbs.
2Bryce, Emma. The power of the placebo effect - Emma Bryce. YouTube, TED Education, 4
Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=z03FQGlGgo0.
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dopamine. Those healing hormones bathe the body, allowing the body to self-cure itself, as

Lissa Rankin said in her Ted talk. 3

The more confident we are it will work, and the more expectations we have for the drug,

the more relaxed we are. A factor that affects our expectations toward the drug and the efficiency

of the placebo is the way the drug is presented to you.4 For example, a capsule is more effective

than a pill. A blue capsule is more effective for a sleeping pill than any other color. An injection is

more effective than a capsule; a machine treatment is more effective than an injection; a surgery

is more effective than the machine treatment.5 This is all because of expectation. You expect a

surgery to be much more effective than a simple pill.

Another essential part of placebo is the medial ritual and patient-doctor relationship.6 The

patient needs to attend a consult, where the doctor asks, Whats wrong with you?; When did

the symptoms begin? and all the questions doctor ask. It is very important that the doctor wears

the white doctors gown; it gives him credibility. The doctors also need to interact with the pa-

tients. If the patient feels the doctor is determined in her case, she has higher expectations, she

feels cared for. Studies have shown that when there is a strong relationship present, results almost

3Isthere scientific proof we can heal ourselves? | Lissa Rankin, MD | TEDxAmericanRiviera.

YouTube, TEDx, 18 Dec. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWQfe__fNbs.
4What Is the Placebo Effect? WebMD, WebMD, 26 Feb. 2016, www.webmd.com/pain-man-
agement/what-is-the-placebo-effect#1.
5Sullivan, Laura. Research Shows Placebos May Have Place In Everyday Treatments. NPR,
NPR, 3 Feb. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/02/03/171006082/research-shows-placebos-may-have-
place-in-everyday-treatments.
6Feinberg, Cara. The Placebo Phenomenon. Harvard Magazine, Harvard, 3 Mar. 2014,
www.harvardmagazine.com/2013/01/the-placebo-phenomenon.
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double.7 Both of these factors are important because humans relate doctors and medical offices

to getting better.

The placebo effect is altering and questioning medicine in ways you don't even imagine.

Although we have yet to discover everything about this process, it is important we do. Placebos

are opening doors to new branches of medicine that can help cure many lives. Lets not be afraid

of placebos, but embrace it.

7 Kaptchuk, Ted J, et al. Sham device v inert pill: randomised controlled trial of two placebo
treatments. The BMJ, British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 16 Feb. 2006, www.bmj.com/
content/332/7538/391.short.