Placebo Effect Experiment

This research explores the placebo effect and its impact on stress, anxiety, and mood. It investigates the emotional attachments towards drugs and the role of patient expectations. The study involves administering a placebo tablet to three individuals, resulting in positive responses. The placebo effect is examined from psychological and biological perspectives.

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PLACEBO EFFECT EXPERIMENT
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ABSTRACT
In this research, a study was conducted
about the placebo phenomenon. A
placebo effect on people with problems
of stress, anxiety and moody behaviours
was undertaken to find out how it works.
The use of a placebo parasol tablets was
used on three people for five days taking
one pill per day. After the fourth day, all
of them responded to be feeling happy
due to the use of the placebo tablet. This
study was aimed at finding out the
emotional attachments towards drugs by
patients oblivion of the fact that active
pharmaceutical ingredient was absent on
the tablet.

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Placebo effect experiment
Introduction
A placebo is a non-therapeutic substance
with no effect on the disease of interest
such as saline water, sugar pill or sterile
water while in some cases it can produce
positive results. More focus has been on
the placebo effect which has been there
for centuries. It is indicative that the
effect is apparent on the person’s
expectation on the drug to bring about a
positive response. Research has shown
that under the right conditions, the
placebo effect can be active as the
conventional ones. During the
development of a new drug, researchers
conduct various studies to compare the

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effectiveness of a drug with a placebo
one. This is because any drug can have a
placebo effect not related to its actions.
For a drug to be useful in the treatment,
its effectiveness must surpass those of the
placebo (Benedetti 2014).
It has been proved over a long period that
placebo substance when administered to
people especially the senior citizens with
the assurance of treating, produce
positive results since the brain and mind
are convinced, thus self-healing takes
place. Anticipations of the sick person
usually play a vital duty in the dummy
impact. There will be a higher probability
for the patient to show placebo effect
after treatment if there is optimism. The

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placebo effect offers unique opportunities
to understand the relationships in the
environment, mental and brain processes.
It is doubtful to have one theory
explaining the placebo effect since it cuts
across all the medical disciplines hence
psychological and biological explanations
have been put forward. Currently, two
psychological theories have been put
forward to define the placebo effect. The
theories are classical conditioning and
expectational theories (Bakermans-
Kranenburg and Van Ijzendoorn 2013).
There have been various theories
presented as to why the placebo effect
occurs and patients can have a change in
relief of symptoms directly through the

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belief that they are taking the actual drug.
One of the theories presented about the
placebo is especially the subject-
expectancy effect (Boisson et al. 2013). It
is very imperative to note that when
individual people know that taking a
given medication brings about a
particular reaction, they unconsciously
tend to bring out the expected outcome of
the possible response of the drug. Here,
the stimulus is the medicine received
while the reaction is the relief in the
symptoms. Placebos rely mostly on the
body-mind to produce chemicals that act
naturally like the actual drug because of
the expectations on the outcome.

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Another theory placebo effect presented
was that of the positive patient-caregiver
relationship, where the doctor assures the
patient of positive response. This has
been tremendously used for mild
illnesses and conditions which are
especially partly related to stress like;
anxiety disorders, hypertension, and
asthma (Bartels et al. 2014).
People, who always experience the
placebo effect, are told that they are
taking the real medical treatment and can
bring about an improvement on the
symptoms. It can also be associated with
the psychological influence on the
placebo. Some people taking the placebo
feel better while others develop side

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effects. This coincidental change is one
of the reasons attributed to giving credit
to the placebo whenever it works. A
medical practitioner plays a significant
role in generating the placebo effect since
he or she possesses the placebogenic and
prognostic power, significantly
increasing the healing potential (Bovier,
Renzi and Hammond 2014).
The mind usually has been associated
with having a strong influence on the
body thus enhancing it to heal naturally.
It sometimes deceives one to believe on
the therapeutic power of the placebo
bringing about the placebo effect. In
certain situations, these dummies tend to
put forth a positive impact by mimicking

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the actual results of the treatment
interactions. The above studies are very
vital in research as it helps to identify the
psychological and physiological effects
of new medications that are being
developed (Brim and Miller 2013).
Placebo effects play a significant role in
successful medical treatments in the
modern world. The nocebo effect also has
a considerable influence, for it
contributes largely on the detailed side
effects for many medical interventions.
For a far longtime, many studies have
been carried out to reducing placebo
effects; however, there has been a
paradigm shift, with more effort in
increasing placebo effects to enhance

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available medical care and in looking for
avenues to reduce nocebo effects to
improve medical result. To get tangible
results, a clear overview of the emotional
and neurobiological pathways of the
placebo and nocebo reaction is requisite
(Büchel, Geuter, Sprenger and Eippert
2014).
A research was carried out on three
people by giving them a placebo (parasol
tablet) for five days taking one daily.
Convincingly, it was told to them that by
taking the placebo daily, it would
increase positivity and happiness. At the
end of the fourth day, the response was
all about being happy and confident. In
this regard, expectations are tied towards

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the placebo does not make it fake or
imaginary instead it tends to show the
physical changes that occur due to its use,
for instance, production of endorphins as
a pain reliever by the body. Placebo
effects have been shown to occur in 21%
to 40% of patients dependent on study
type (Colloca, Klinger, Flor and Bingel
2013). For example, studies carried out
on pain by brain imaging shows that
patient who thought to be receiving a
painkiller medication, consequently,
resulted in the stimulation of the brain
endogenous opioid system and the
production of natural pain-relieving
chemicals in the body (Brown and Brown
2013).

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Various factors have been attributed
toward how people feel when being
administered the placebos. It includes the
condition of the sickness; the perception
patients believe the therapy expected to
bring about, kind of result the patient
expects to experience, the close
relationship between the patient and the
caregiver and kind of genes of the
patients also play a significant role. One
of the greatest studied and powerful
placebo effects is in the area of
analgesics. According to statistics,
approximately thirty to sixty per cent of
patients will feel that their suffering has
reduced after taking a placebo pill (Kim
et al. 2013).

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In psychology, researchers can use a
placebo control cluster, of contestants
who are subjected to the sham
independent placebo. The results got are
then compared with those of real
experimental group of interest. Even
though, placebos contain no actual
treatment, studies have shown that they
can have a change of both bodily and
emotional effects (Horing, Weimer, Muth
and Enck 2014). Individuals in placebo
groups have shown variations in pulse
rate, hypertension, nervousness levels,
pain discernment, lethargy, and even
brain co-ordination response. It is very
clear that the changes of the brain activity
play an important role in health.

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Scientists are still carrying out studies
why the above phenomenon brings about
changes after taking the placebo. There
have been various causes including;
placebos may trigger hormone responses
like endorphins which look like morphine
structurally and other opiate analgesics
making the brain to release its analgesic
nature (Kim et al. n.d). Here, a placebo is
paired with actual treatment evoking the
desired effect like classical conditioning,
motivation, and hope. People who
believe that the treatment will work will
have a placebo, while the enthusiasm of
the doctor administering the procedure
will produce a profound response
(Howick et al. 2013).

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In another case study of similar kind,
seventy five percent of the sick people
suffering from postoperative wound pain
showed significant improvement after
administration of the uncontaminated
saltwater. It was noted by research
scientists that responders were
indiscernible from the non-responders,
both in the seeming severity of their pain
and psychological character (Wigton et
al. 2015). Amazingly, the dummy effect
in postoperative sick people could be
thwarted by naloxone, a chemical that
works against opiate receptors, showing a
considerable pharmacological foundation
for the reduction of pain experienced. A
common analogy of confusion about the

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placebo effect is the opinion that people
who show changes on placebos to a
therapeutically meaningless reagent are
not suffering real pain, but only
imagining it; this is not the case. Many
clinical studies have been performed for
people with Parkinson's disease including
sham surgery experiments (Kong et al.
2013). Surgeons performed the surgeries
by drilling holes through the foreheads of
forty patients, creating portals into their
skulls. Fifty percent of the patients were
administered with injections of fetal cells,
while the other half never got any
injections (Kong et al. 2013). The hope
was that the fetal cells would regenerate
the brain, by replacing the damaged and

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worn out ones with the more active ones.
The anticipations of the participants knew
that they had a fifty-fifty probability of
either receiving or not the fetal cells
(Kong et al. 2013). They were made
aware that if after twelve months, the
fetal cells proved helpful to the people
who got them, all people in the study
would be given injections of fetal cells.
At the tail-end, varied results were
obtained showing that expectations
played a significant role in producing
substantial consequences for both
subjects of interest (Sanacora et al. 2014).
Although the placebo effect has been
there for some time, it was considered an
outdated morally questionable practice

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implying dishonesty and interventionism
with the introduction of modern
conventional ways of treatment.
However, in recent years, there has been
an increased study to unravel the
mechanisms of placebo usage especially
on the line of analgesia. With these
rigorous researches, more studies have
been geared towards the psychosocial
context surrounding patients (Plassmann
and Weber 2015). Therefore, a clear
understanding by researchers is needed
especially those dealing essentially on
pain, stress-related conditions and anxiety
disorders. When patients seek medical
attention in hospitals aiming to get better
after treatment from symptoms that were

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particularly bad, a change may occur
naturally. Thus, producing a positive
impact over time even when no treatment
is offered implying that time also is a
placebo (Plassmann and Weber 2015).
There is a need to embrace the placebo
effect in the modern world of medicine
because of the importance it brings about
which includes; the placebo effect
enhances the recuperative power of the
mind, thus, making sure that there is self-
healing instead of using conventional
medicine. Another advantage is that it
boosts the brain psychologically hence
optimism of recovery from illness by the
patient. It will also show the
measurement of behavioural change

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towards the treatment of certain diseases.
The placebo effect is very pivotal
towards self-awareness of the mind-body
in the healing process (Brown and Brown
2013). Once one is aware of the condition
affecting him or her, then, it becomes
more comfortable for the placebo effect
to work faster as compared to that
oblivion of the disease affecting them. In
essence, the placebo effect can be used to
ones advantage like boosting confidence
by labeling a container of a pill that
increases your brain activity thus, when
taken, the brain registers it, getting a job
well done within a short span by
believing that there is still time left to
complete the task when one is late. It can

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also be used to increase the pace of
relaxation when one thinks it wills (Shah
and Pimentel 2014)
Placebos are very vital in the drug
development stages where trials are
carried out about the effectiveness of the
drug and the expected outcome to treat a
given condition (Stothart, Simons, Boot
and Kramer 2014). If the control group
on the placebo experiences the same
changes as those expected of the drug
under consideration, then it can be used.
It will be advantageous for the placebo
effect since there are fewer side effects
and less expensive as compared to
conventional medicine. Sometimes, many
argue that placebos should not be used

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when there are drugs that can treat the
condition (Brown and Brown 2013).
It has also been shown that the placebo
effect has a reasonably favourable
reaction to care by patients who have
faith that it can reduce anxiety disorders
and stress-related conditions. The patients
develop ease of calmness when they are
surrounded by people who inspire hope
into their situation thus bringing a change
of attitude in alleviating the problem.
Subjective experiences of patients
towards the placebo effects determines
the entirely the success or failure over the
treatment that is carried out (Simons,
Boot and Kramer 2014). It is more
pronounced on symptomatic conditions

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like depression, back pain and mostly
where the pain originates. Studies have
also shown that the placebo effect is
coherently associated with objective
changes especially on how the brain
responds. For example, the brain releases
endorphins during pain, production of
dopamine for the Parkinson’s disease
which is usually associated with the
shortage of dopamine and the effect it has
on the treatment of depression (Favrat et
al. 2014).
In conclusion, it is important one finds
how the placebo effect will be beneficial
to the well-being of patients and it is
advisable that one sees a doctor who can
offer support during the healing process.

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Getting support is very important as one
create an essential aspect of treatment, if
not, getting the necessary support or
switching caregivers is always
recommended. Since the placebo is still
being understood, recognising a specific
condition in mind is not wrong as it will
help one to deal with any situation when
it arises. It is also imperative to recognise
that seeking treatment where expectations
are high of being cured is often
considered as a proper intervention. It is
also not wrong to be sceptical of some
treatments as some charlatans, and
dishonest people in the name of
caregivers can use substances that are
harmful to the body by avoiding the real

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treatment. Finally, instead of dismissing
the placebo effect, there is a need for
more understanding to take advantage of
it and harness it where it can be used
instead of the conventional medicine, and
that forms the power of the placebo effect
in the day to day activities.

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