WASHINGTON — It turns out the “placebo effect” — in which sugar pills, saline solution or other fake treatments actually resolve a patient’s condition — may also work even when patients know the medication they’re taking is bogus.
CBS News reported on the findings of a new study from Harvard Medical School, in which patients in a clinical trial testing treatments for irritable bowel syndrome were given a placebo treatment. About 60 percent of the subjects in the study who received the placebo — and who knew they were getting the fake medicine — reported getting better, said Harvard professor Dr. Ted Kaptchuk, who led the study.
The study took place at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Kaptchuk said patients aren’t simply imagining they’re getting better, pointing to brain scans he’s performed on patients who received placebos.
“We actually see part of the pain matrix being activated that would change this sensation of pain,” he told CBS News, adding that simply giving medication “in the context of the health care encounter activates neurotransmitters.”
The placebo effect has been studied for decades, but it’s long been thought inactive treatments would only be effective if patients believed they were taking legitimate medications.
There are several conditions for which placebos would not be effective, Kaptchuk said, such as cancer or high cholesterol.
“Basically the scope where a placebo effect is relevant is any symptom that the brain can modulate by itself,” he said. Those symptoms include pain, nausea and fatigue.
Kaptchuk said the next step is figuring out how to use placebos effectively in everyday clinical practice.
In a 2008 study, about half of American doctors said they had prescribed some form of placebo, although the American Medical Association requires doctors inform patients if they are receiving inactive medications, CBS News reported.
