Placebo Effect

Most of us go to doctors on not feeling well and we don’t usually worry about the medicine as long as it gets us well. It usually happens when a patient takes a medication that is perceived to be helpful to him or her. This phenomenon of a person’s supposed medical improvement in combination with an inert substance is known as the placebo effect. In Latin, it means “I will please”.

Since this effect is highly dependent upon the patient’s response, there are numerous possible components of a placebo effect, in other words the placebo response is highly variable in reliability and magnitude. Hence, the placebo effect can be termed as the observable improvement in heath not attributable to a medication or actual treatment.

Types of Placebos

• Inert Placebo: This contains pharmacologically inactive ingredients
• Sugar Pill Placebo: This contain basic ingredients like sugar or saline solution, hence are often termed “Sugar Pills”
• Alternative Placebo: These placebos are in form of injections or surgery or medical therapies. Even some medication is also counted as placebos.

Theory behind Placebo Effect

• Subject-Expectancy Effect: According to this theory, it is believed that when patients are aware of the benefits of taking a pill, they usually tend to change their reaction towards the outcome and often get treated in the process.
• Classical Conditioning: This theory tells that people who have experienced placebo effect earlier have become conditioned to expect relief on taking medication.

Both the theories are quite similar since in both, the patient has inbuilt expectation of the results which are measured after the placebo effect. ­

Placebos have been found to have work for around 30% of patients; in fact they have been used increasingly by doctors today to relieve suffering. Placebos may bring about both psychological as well as a little physical response. The change may be due to stress reduction, expectancy effects and spontaneous improvement.

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