Placebo effect: A cure in the mind

A placebo (or dummy pill) is an indolent substance — generally a tablet, capsule or an alternative dose — that is devoid of an active drug ingredient. For example, placebo pills or liquids could contain starch, sugar, or saline solution.

It is frequently used in scientific investigations as an inactive control variable to help researchers evaluate the overall effect of a drug treatment under experimentation. The clinical trials include a cluster of patients receiving the placebo and another receiving the experimental drug. Neither group is aware of the type of treatment it has been given.

Moreover, researchers in the study would also not know which patients have obtained active or placebo regimens. These studies are known as “double-blind” and “placebo-controlled” and have come across as the gold standard for experimental drug endeavours.

Physicians employed reduce doses of anti-inflammatory medications together with a placebo to successfully treat patients inflicted with psoriasis. Commingling active drug with placebo could be effective in treating diseases involving the mental state and immune system. These include  respiratory  ailments (asthma, bronchitis), multiple sclerosis, and chronic pain. Reducing doses by alternating the administration with placebo treatment might also decrease side effects, addiction potential and cost.

Not just a mental trick
The late 1970s saw the first attestation of physiological basis for placebo effects. Academic workers studying dental patients documented that by chemically blocking the release of brain's natural pain relievers (endorphins), scientists could also block the placebo effect.

This alluded placebo treatments to  chemical responses in the brain that are akin to those of active drugs, a theory borne out two decades later by brain-scan PET technology. Current neuroscientists in the global scenario like Fabrizio Benedetti have demonstrated that many neurotransmitters including chemicals that use the same pathways as opium and marijuana, play a noticeable role. Studies by other analysts have revealed that placebos accelerate dopamine (a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres)) in the brains of Parkinson patients. Apparently, patients suffering from depression who’ve been administered placebos exhibit changes in electrical and metabolic activity in several different regions of the brain.

Placebos have helped assuage pain, depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, demagogic disorders and even cancer. Conditioning that is below the threshold of sensation can control unaware bodily mechanisms such as immune responses and the release of hormones. Researchers have decoded some placebo responses that stem from active processes in the brain. Merely thinking that a placebo will help relieve pain prompts your brain to release more natural painkillers, known as endorphins. There are varying levels of dopamine in the brain area involved in the ability to experience reward and pleasure. Owing to this some maybe more susceptible to the placebo effect than the others.

We know that mind and body are connected when it comes to placebo responses in patients. In fact, scientists have catalogued brain mobility in placebo reciprocations. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology has made a few interesting observations:

n The placebo effect is mainly a psychosocial context effect.

n Mechanisms that are activated by placebos are similar to that of the drugs.

However, placebo effects also occur when there is a conscious belief that the drug works. If you expect to recover, the brain automatically sends the appropriate response. Also, subconscious alliance between recovery and the experience of being treated entailing the pinch of a shot to a doctor’s white integuments has a conspicuous effect too. The kind of intensive medical care one receives makes a difference. The fact that a rapport between the patient and doctor can impact placebo administration cannot be overlooked.