The magic of virtual therapy 'Placebo

Placebo in Latin means " I am loved ". In medicine, it is a " virtual " alternative or healing tool, ie, there is no real clinical treatment for disease, but is prescribed by doctors to patients under the name Drug meaning or corresponding therapy. But why do we still need that alternative product, the history around this issue is quite an interesting story. In fact, although they appear "superficial" in appearance, they still have a fairly wide and effective application (!). US scientists have been studying for years on placebo and drawing very interesting conclusions.

The term " placebo ", or placebo effect (placebo effect), was formally first introduced in 1894, to refer to the " empty " pill (without substance), taken orally, with no therapeutic value. Clinical disease, often prescribed by doctors for patients with few episodes

A placebo surgery.

There are very poor illnesses or clinical symptoms, or when the patient has an ill idea, in fact is completely healthy. Usually, these tablets have neutral and completely harmless ingredients, do not bring any effect to the human body, in other words are not good and not bad, with mostly sugar ingredients or calcium gluconate.

Surprisingly, after using these " pills ", many people actually feel that their health is much improved . For example, during the Second World War, many hospitals and field treatment facilities lacked serious painkillers, did not know how to deal with the demanding cries of the sick, they had the initiative to use placebo replacements and in many cases they proved to be quite effective, many wounded patients and patients felt that they really helped.

In fact, in 1946, Cornell University (USA) held the first conference on the effect of placebo on the patient's body. The next development step, 1955, BS. Henry Beecher in Boxton (United States), the author of The powerful placebo published in the medical journal, published 15 clinical trials on people with real illness, found one-third of them. In this case, the disease was significantly improved after using placebo. The author writes that placebo can cause significant changes in health, including direct effects on diseased organs, even if the effect is more pronounced than operative. conventional treatment. And Garry Gold, another scientist from Cornell University in the United States, said that placebo has a great therapeutic effect in treating cardiovascular disease, in addition to creating similar reactions in the body. when drinking a little alcohol or taking drinks with caffeine.

Gradually the concept of placebo was further expanded. It was found that it was possible to affect patients not only with placebo pills or injections but also many other medical procedures . For example, when we tell patients that some surgery has been done (like with abdominal malignant tumors), while in fact only one line is removed then stitched, then in many cases People still feel that the disease situation has improved better. Even in some patients, they can see better health when measuring body temperature or blood pressure.

Some kind of ' medicine ' placebo.

Today, the placebo effect is made up primarily of oral, intravenous or intravenous solutions, acupuncture and surgical procedures (pretending) or providing fake information that benefits patients.

Studies have also shown that placebo has different effects on different pathologies. Often, they are very effective in treating mental, physiological or neurological conditions, such as anxiety, frustration, depression, insomnia, allergies, eczema . and to a lesser extent with diseases such as stomach, bladder or diabetes dysfunction.

Placebo often proved useful when treating neurological diseases or some cardiovascular functional symptoms such as cardiac arrhythmia, palpitations, extrasystole . For example, headaches can be treated with " virtual " tablets, or pretend to be acupuncture. For severe injuries outside the body or infectious disease, placebo has little effect. This allows scientists to conclude that placebo's therapeutic efficacy is in fact only present with more or less related conditions to the functioning of the nervous system.

Today, placebo is also used quite often in clinical trials, when needed to control groups. For example, a group of patients used real drugs, while the control group only took placebo, but none of them knew what type of medication was actually used. If the real medication group had positive progress, and the control group had no significant changes, it would mean that the drug was working well. However, the health condition of some patients is still better after using " virtual drugs ".

The most revolutionary experiment to study the new placebo effect was recently conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan (USA). The team of scientists under the leadership of Ion-Kar Zubieta injected saline dilute saline into the oropharynx of 14 volunteers and monitored their reactions via electroencephalogram. The procedure for injecting saline solution is quite painful, but they explain to some volunteers that they have mixed painkillers into this solution. Whether it is a lie for a simple scientific purpose, but the machine has recorded an immediate reaction or change in the brain: nerve glands begin to produce endorphins, and muscles Painful receptors have completely isolated endorphin hormones. Ion-Kar Zubieta said that this experiment rejected the pre-existing misconception that placebo only produced a psychological effect, not a mechanical or chemical effect. With the body, while in fact the relationship between body and brain is very clear, in other words, the brain is very important for the body, even for treating the lesions. injury of the body.

In contrast to placebo, nocebo therapy or nocebo effect (nocebo effect), also comes from the Latin term, meaning " I'm definitely hurt " . In this case, after using " virtual " drugs, some patients in the control group may think that their disease or health situation has not only improved, but also tends to deteriorate. . Often, these people have a tendency to be overly sensitive, negating the positive effects of placebo therapy, being pessimistic and arguing that they themselves are incapable of restoring health or winning illness.