12.09.12
The placebo effect reconsidered
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ new study has reassessed our perceptions of the placebo effect. It’s been found that the effect can be triggered outside of cognitive awareness, with patients showing clinical progress despite their treatment’s lack of active components.
The previous expectations of improving because you expect to improve have been re-evaluated, with help from 40 healthy ‘guinea pigs’ and thermal heat. It was to be expected that the subjects’ pain levels increased when viewing a picture that indicated extreme discomfort, and reduced when seeing a neutral picture, despite the heat sensation remaining constant throughout the study.
However, when the test was repeated with pictures changing too quickly for the brain to register and recognise, it was found that the placebo effect relies on mechanisms that aren’t dependant on consciousness.
The PNAS’s study proved that the brain picks up on subtle cues, and therefore subtle environmental cues, meaning that the atmosphere of a hospital, the body language of a physician or the colour of a room may contribute to a patient’s recovery.
If this is so, the nocebo effect is activated in a similar manner. Should we be concerned that visiting an ill-tempered doctor in an uninviting examination room may diminish our chances of recovery?
Guest blog by Amy Kilvington
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