Contents
We are glad to welcome you, dear readers! The placebo effect is when a person feels better after taking a counterfeit medicine that has neutral properties. And today we will consider its main characteristics, types and history of origin.
History of occurrence
The term was first used by the anesthetist Henry Beecher. Around 1955, he discovered that wounded soldiers who were injected with ordinary saline because of a shortage of painkillers were recovering on a par with those who received the medicine directly. When he returned from the war, he gathered colleagues from Harvard University and actively began to study this phenomenon.
But the history of origin begins in the 1700s. It was then that an unusual reaction of the body was noticed in response to a substance that had absolutely no medicinal qualities. That is, a person recovered, being sure that he was taking the medicine, although in fact he received a “dummy”.
The doctors themselves treated the use of placebos as a forced lie, so as not to once again “stuff” patients with drugs prone to hypochondria, that is, excessive suspiciousness and focus on their own health. You can find out in more detail what it is, and against the background of what it develops, from the article about suspiciousness.
Despite the fact that this expression is well known and familiar to almost every person on the planet, it is still poorly understood. Experts cannot provide an accurate explanation of what happens to a person against the background of self-hypnosis.
Characterization
This effect is common, due to the fact that a person tends to consider the absence of pain and ailments as a sign of recovery. And as you could see from your own example, if you practice meditation, you can control the intensity of the sensation of pain with the power of thought, relaxing and concentrating on the fact that, for example, it leaves the body with breathing, on each exhalation. If you do not practice, then it is easy to fix it if you wish, look here.
Placebo can be:
• Active, that is, it contains at least some minimal useful substances. The most common is vitamin C, which does not harm the body, but rather helps with colds and such a terrible disease as scurvy. It is found in ascorbic acid, sometimes it is prescribed under the guise of good, proven and high-quality tablets.
• Passive, that is, completely neutral in action. The psychology of a suggestible person is such that he will feel relief from ordinary salt water, taking it for an effective pain reliever.
There is such a thing as nocebo, and it manifests itself in the opposite way, that is, a person begins to feel worse. For example, it is worth reading a list of contraindications to any remedy, as various symptoms immediately appear. There were cases when particularly impressionable individuals had asthma attacks and even death.
Interesting Facts
Instructions for use
- Advertising does its job, because if you offer a person a “dummy” of a famous brand, he will surely believe in its healing properties, especially if, among other things, it turns out to be expensive.
- Color is also important, for example, if you take a blue substance, it will have a calming effect, but if it is yellow, it will help to cope with a bad mood during depression.
- Sometimes you have to add some active substances to the “dummy” so that they are more like the original in their effect. For example, emetic, so that the patient is a little sick, as described in the recipe.
- The brighter and more unusual the capsule, the more likely it is that self-hypnosis will be successful. Everything beautiful attracts attention and creates the illusion that it will work better than the usual banal white pill. By the way, the size also affects, small dragees practically do not give an effect, unlike huge pills, which are sometimes difficult to swallow.
- Works best when a person drinks two capsules in a row. And, by the way, it is better to drink two once a day than several times one at a time.
- If you make a choice between an injection and tablets, then the injection looks more solid, which is why the effectiveness is higher.
Recommendations
- Children are more subject to suggestion, because they do not have very clear ideas about this world and what is happening in it, therefore they believe in various miracles, which only enhances the effect of «pacifiers». Adults, on the other hand, understand what is real and what is not, therefore they lend themselves to criticism and evaluation of those moments in which they are well oriented. But if a person does not understand medicine, it will also be easy for him to “inspire” ideas about miraculous drugs that will really help.
- By the way, you can get hooked on fake medicine. There is a psychological dependence, addiction to the drug, devoid of any active substances.
- The intensity of manifestation varies depending on the place of residence. Suppose vaccination is very common in the United States, and all because most of the population is prone to hypochondria, which was mentioned at the beginning of the article.
- Interestingly, despite the person’s awareness that he is taking a fake drug, recovery still occurs, as if he received «normal» treatment.
- Do you know why alternative medicine is so popular? It really often shows positive results, and all because the “specialists” pay enough attention to their patients, which cannot be said about traditional doctors, who also need to sit out a long line. Having received a portion of much-needed interest in his person, a person really calms down, which makes him feel better. By the way, the more benevolent the medical worker, the more effective the fake drug will be. After all, such a good and sympathetic person can definitely cure. Is not it?
Research
Do you know how they find out if the placebo effect is manifesting or not? Conduct research by recruiting a group of people with the same diagnosis, and then divide it into subgroups. The first is a control one, its participants will receive full-fledged treatment, the second is an experimental one, “dummy” will be distributed in it, and the third is a calibration one, it will be with it that the results will be correlated and compared, since the people who are members of it will not receive any medicines .
In the case when the participants did not know which group they belonged to, experimental or calibration, then such a study is called blind. If even the doctors themselves did not know all the nuances, then double-blind, which, by the way, is the most reliable and reliable. Only in this case, many drugs appeared that did not contain components that have a therapeutic effect on the body, for example, such as glycine, riboxin, glucosamine, and so on.
Despite the fact that many healthcare professionals are reluctant to use counterfeit medicines, sometimes this is a necessary step to help patients, because hope is already half of recovery, and it is not always worth «stuffing» the body with drugs, especially in cases where illnesses arose from an emotional background. stress, trauma and overexertion.
Such diseases are called psychosomatic, and until peace of mind is restored, they will not disappear. For example, healed stomach ulcers can appear again and again until a person realizes his grievances, which he accumulates inside himself and does not clarify the relationship.
Let’s look at examples of placebo cures that are truly amazing.
Examples
1. Foreign experts conducted an experiment with people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The patients were divided into two groups, in one the participants underwent surgery, “planting” nerve cells into the brain, which were supposed to help them recover, and in the other they were simply told that exactly the same manipulations were carried out with them, in fact, excluding surgical intervention .
By the way, the experiment was doubly blind, that is, even the doctors themselves did not know the details. And what do you think? One year later, all patients showed positive results.
2. During the war in 1994, one soldier was injured in his leg, but the field doctor did not have painkillers. But he found a way out of this situation by giving the wounded soldier ordinary water, talking about its potent analgesic properties. Surprisingly, it worked.
3. With the power of thought, it is even possible to heal cancer, as evidenced by the story of one man who was just diagnosed with this difficult disease. He lost about 44 kg in weight in a short period, as an insidious disease struck his throat, and he could not fully eat, most of the time suffering from pain.
The attending physician of the unfortunate, along with radiation therapy, decided to teach him self-hypnosis techniques in order to at least help alleviate the condition a little. By imagining how cancer cells leave the body with the help of the kidneys and liver, the man managed not only to feel better, but also to recover.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today, dear readers! Finally, I would like to recommend not to abandon traditional treatment in favor of an alternative, so that the opposite effect does not arise — a nocebo, but, following the recommendations of specialists, additionally think positively to help yourself become healthy and full of strength. How to do it correctly, you will learn from the article about alpha rendering. Take care of yourself and loved ones!