Now on the shelves of shops and pharmacies you can meet all sorts of bright packages with attractive inscriptions such as "slim figure for 10 days", "forget about insomnia forever" or even "life without acne." But are the ingredients contained in these products really able to have the promised effect? Or is this just an advertising move? Let's try to figure it out.
The effectiveness of a number of methods and methods of treatment used has been studied by specialists in placebo-controlled studies. The researchers argue that, both in medical and psychological therapy, the success rates of treatment are quite close. It is difficult to explain this by accidental coincidence, because the value of the indicators is about 80%. Therefore, we are talking about the participation of some common factor in these therapeutic effects. Most likely, it is a question of the placebo effect.
Placebo Syndrome
As you know, the power of suggestion is very great. And it is on it that the placebo method is constructed. It is now used in medicine, but originates from ancient times. For example, in the XIX century, so-called pacifier tablets, which the doctors of those times gave their capricious and suspicious wards. A placebo drug was used when the doctor realized that his patient was only imagining his condition, but did not want to tell him about it. And then the tablet, which looked absolutely real, although it contained nothing but a neutral filler (starch, calcium gluconate, chalk, sugar, table salt), sometimes created real miracles. It was important only to convince the patient that he was given exactly the effective drug from his illness. Thus, a fictitious medicine overcame an imaginary disease.
The word "placebo" in Latin means "like". The name initially seems rather strange, but a placebo is not always a pill, but the method of suggestion and, with its use, self-healing of the organism occurs. Placebo often has a different effect: sometimes it is invisible, but sometimes there is complete healing. The secret is the degree of suggestibility, the credulity of people. Advantages and disadvantages.
German experts believe that the basis for the widespread use of placebo is, firstly, the absence of side effects, and secondly, that placebo and the like can be used in the treatment of various diseases for which there is no evidence-based therapy yet. Opinions of specialists on the effectiveness of this method are ambiguous: some actively use it in their practice, others consider it a mere quackery, because specific definite manifestations of the placebo effect depend on the person's personal and social characteristics, his expectations, also the physician's features, his qualifications, experience and ability to interact with patients.
An important experimental method for studying the placebo effect in psychology is hypnosis. It is proved that placebo-therapy increases in proportion to the strengthening of suggestion. It is also interesting that the efficacy of such an effect in a patient can be predicted on the basis of his personality type. Trust in a doctor is the basis for a positive impact, that is, extroverts - people are sincere, open, ready to interact with doctors, and are prone to this method of treatment. Introverts, however, suspicious and distrustful, often turn out to be placebo-non-reactive.
It should be noted that the effectiveness of treatment by all kinds of shamans and healers is also explained by the placebo effect. The healers just give the body time to heal itself. However, it is strictly unacceptable to use the placebo method instead of effective drugs in diseases requiring effective emergency care.
To date, there are far more questions in the placebo mechanism than answers. Although it is believed that the secret of the placebo is self-hypnosis, but this phenomenon is far from being fully understood by specialists, and whether to trust it or not is a personal matter for everyone