This is exactly what happened to a 71-year-old patient named Linda, whose case was cited in a recent Time magazine article about '
Placebo's New Power.'
[10] showed that (a)
placebo and nocebo effects in hormone secretion (growth hormone and cortisol) were affected by pharmacological conditioning, but not by verbal suggestions, (b)
placebo and nocebo effects in pain were induced by pharmacological conditioning and by verbal suggestions, but pharmacologically conditioned
placebo hypoalgesia was overridden by opposing verbal suggestions, and (c) motor performance in Parkinsonian patients depended on verbal suggestion after repeated deactivation of implanted stimulating electrodes.
Various components of the treatment situation, collectively referred to as
placebo, are a powerful antidote for illness, and some of these healing components exert their influence without special activity on the clinician's part:
Anything that threatened the fastidious detection of a predictable cause and effect outcome was conveniently disposed of in a repository labelled the "
placebo effect".
Should we tell patients that magnesium works no better than a
placebo, but that it still may help them?
In fact, the
placebo effect can be compared to the experience of watching a horror movie.
This is an interesting study that demonstrates the potential benefit of harnessing
placebo responses to elicit positive outcomes in patients.
Among the genes that appear to mediate the
placebo effect, five are associated with the chemical messenger dopamine and four are linked with the chemical messenger serotonin.
In the second group
placebo was administered and their warts were frozen monthly for three month.
Most people are familiar with the concept of a "
placebo effect," the perception that a subject's health improved after the subject unknowingly received an inert treatment that should have had no effect on the subject whatsoever.