The definition " placebo effect " has now entered our common language and is often used even in a disparaging sense when we do not believe in the effective efficacy of some therapies and are thought to act only for a form of suggestion .
Let's see better what it is.
How the placebo effect works: the mechanisms
Placebo first of all means "I will like it ", from the Latin " placere " conjugated to the future. Behind this meaning there is a psychosomatic technique that involves the administration of a "nothing", that is a fake remedy devoid of any active principle, without the patient's knowledge, to which the curative reaction is instead indicated.
The expectations related to the alleged drug develop a neurovegetative reaction with the production of endorphins that modify the perception of pain and the reaction of the immune system, improving the general condition of the subject.
In the clinical setting, the placebo effect is used to test a new drug by creating study groups: given the same endogenous and exogenous conditions, thus trying to eliminate the variables as much as possible, placebo remedies and effective sample remedies are administered, often in double blind, or unbeknownst to the subject undergoing the test and also without the knowledge of the researcher, so as not to influence even a small part of the experimentation.
The results compared will determine whether the tested efficacy gap meets the parameters that confirm the validity of a remedy.
The placebo effects
We anticipated how the placebo effect acts psychologically with somatized responses . The theories on these reactions are much more complex and articulated.
It certainly starts from a psychic nature, in which various extra- pharmaceutical components play a fundamental role, such as trust in the doctor, the confidence in the active ingredients (alleged) of the remedy, the suggestive and self-suggestive effect.
Some researchers attribute the efficacy of the placebo also to a positive response of the organism in the biochemical, hormonal and immune field, with a " placebo-analgesia" effect that sees a remission of pain, of a disturbance of significant importance.
Healing: therapeutic and symbolic efficacy
The nocebo effect
On the basis of the same mechanisms, both psychosomatic and biochemical, there may also be cases of "harming" the nocebo effect.
So in some subjects both the inactive and the effective remedy to be tested can cause negative responses and a recrudescence of the symptom.
In this case an incorrect doctor-patient relationship is hypothesized, based on a total mistrust as well as distrust both between the parties and towards the experimentation.
The teaching of the placebo effect
Beyond mere heartless judgments, as often happens with certain extremely fundamentalist professionals, I would like to say that the placebo effect is welcome, without entering into the ethical question! This shows us how our mind can guide our body and its reactivity .
What power drugs can have if a correct empathic relationship between doctor and patient is associated with mechanical administration!
I am thinking of all those life-saving cures necessary for cancer patients and how it would be important to integrate the departments with professionals able to work in a complementary way for the sole purpose of bringing home the result: the psychophysical well-being of the human being.
