Placebo – Article in 10/09 issue of Wired, UK edition, talking about the latest problems drug companies are facing with the very real phenomenon of placebos and how they interfere with drug trials. Placebos work because they affect the brain’s expectation system and the consequent release of healing agents. Imagine that a fire alarm goes off and you spot smoke. An entire flood of chemicals is released in the body simply out of the expectation that action will be required. Placebos work in the same manner. What is even more fascinating is that the color, shape, size, quantity and expense of the pill affect its efficacy. Even more, there are differences across types of disease and the effects vary according to country.
Many will remember Michael Fox championing a new drug for Parkinson’s. What is less well known is that the drug was abruptly removed from Phase II trials after it failed unexpectedly against placebos. That’s right – a placebo can reduce the consequences of Parkinson’s disease, such as shaking, just as well or better than drugs coming out of multi-million dollar research programs.
In the book ___ [return and cite] we read about a study conducted in the 50’s where it was shown that those receiving a certain type of open heart surgery fared nearly as well if the surgery didn’t actually occur. This was met with great skepticism. Much more recently, an orthoscoptic surgeon was able to prove that those who believed they were getting their knees scoped (cartilage removed) fared just as well, incredibly, as those who did. Their pain lessened and mobility returned just as well as those receiving the surgery, simply because they received anesthesia and small incisions were made in their knees to make them believe they were repaired.
We have barely begun tapping the awesome healing power of the brain, mostly because we simply refuse to believe it has such power. Scientists faced with the hard evidence from some of the most rigorous studies on the subject ever conducted absolutely refuse to believe the data because it collides so severely with their own dogmatic beliefs about how things should be.