What Is The Placebo Effect?

Placebos have been used as remedies since the beginning of medicine. But placebos are not medicine. When they make you feel better, what you’re experiencing is the placebo effect. So, what are placebos? And what is the placebo effect? Here’s what to know.

What are placebos?

It’s something you take to feel better. It’s something you do. It’s a calm, soothing word. But, it’s not medicine. There is no active medicine in it. It’s not a real remedy. It’s a fake remedy. Still, a placebo can make you feel better.

Placebo effect

It’s when a placebo makes you feel better. It’s a perceived beneficial effect after taking a placebo. It’s when you are convinced something has offered the desired effect you were looking for.

The Placebo Effect can be very beneficial

This was especially true back when all these nice medicines we have today didn’t exist. Back then you had to sell medicine to the patient. You had to convince them it would cause the desired effect and that it was safe. Doctors had to be salesmen in this way.

So, let’s say it’s 1950. So, let’s say we have doctor X. A new patient comes to see him. This patient is a COPDer. The patient says he responds well to a certain pill. His old doctor used to prescribe it for him. So, doctor X prescribes that pill to the patient. Six weeks later that patient returns to Dr. X. He says, “Why is it that when my old doctor gave me this pill, it worked great. But when you gave it to me it doesn’t work at all?”

This is a classic example of the placebo effect. You see, part of medicine is convincing the patient that something is going to work. The patient’s old doctor was a better salesperson than Dr. X. That old doctor convinced the patient that pill was going to work. So it did.

This was how medicine was for most of history. There weren’t all these great medicines we have today, like albuterol. So, doctors had to convince their patients to try it and that it’s safe and will work.

Today, there are lots of people who try to sell placebos. They are usually not doctors. There’s this pill or that elixir that will make you breathe easier. Do they really work? Well, if you’re convinced it will, it just might. When this happens, you may just be experiencing the placebo effect.

Placebos are helpful in science

This is how researchers learn about new medicines. I”m going to use an asthma example here. So, back the 1990s levalbuterol (Xopenex) entered the scene. It was not on the market yet. Researchers thought it would be stronger and safer than albuterol (Ventolin). So, this theory had to be put to the test.

In one study, three groups of asthmatic kids were created. Group A was given a placebo. Group B was given albuterol. And group C was given levalbuterol. A placebo group is necessary to compare results with.

Rather than asking the kids how they felt, pulmonary function tests were performed. This was important to eliminate the placebo effect. So, a breathing test was performed before and after the medicine or placebo was given.

The results showed that both albuterol and levalbuterol improved lung function better than the placebo. This was expected. But, there was no statistical difference between the amount of lung function improvement between albuterol and levalbuterol. The study showed they were both equally effective.

So, for experimental purposes, placebos are nice. They give researchers something to compare data with. In this case, the placebo helped them determine that both albuterol and levalbuterol do indeed open airways.

Comparing both the medicines here helped researchers determine side effects. In both cases, there were some, but they were mild. So, according to this study, side effects of both medicines are negligible.

What to make of this?

As you can see, placebos can be helpful in medicine. There are even some studies showing the beneficial effects of placebos. The placebo effect also has its benefits. This is especially true when there are no true, proven, effective remedies for certain conditions. They offer hope. And hope, in itself, can help you feel better.