A new twist on the old placebo effect

Placebo Effect refers to the phenemenon where someone taking a dummy pill feels better. This is traditionally put down to "positive thinking", and this explanation has been supported by some scientific evidence too.

In one study, a bunch of about 1000 older people were profiled (using a questionnaire) and then surveyed again a decade later. It was found that those who had described themsleves as optimists had 55% lower risk of death from all causes, and 23% less risk of death from heart disease. The thinking is that pessimistic people probably are more prone to developing habits or problems that cut short their lives - like smoking, obesity and hypertension.

In another set of studies, scientists could find some physical manifestations of the placebo effect, rather than the traditional psychological explanation. For example, they could observe that the brain was releasing more endorphins (natural pain killers) when the patient had an expectation that the treatment he was getting would be effective, for instance, on being told that he was being given a pain reliever, while it was actually a dummy. More interestingly, another study found that the medication was less effective when the patient didn't know he was getting it. A computerized morphine administration system worked better when a nurse pretended to administer it.

However, the latest twist, is that the placebo effect is a classic case of correlation, not causation: people who take the placebos regularly tend to take better care of themselves in the first place. Those who don't take their meds (or placebos) regularly, probably have attributes (like depression) that make them less healthy.

Healing may lie not in the treatment but rather in patients’ emotional and cognitive processes of “feeling cared for” and “caring for oneself”, concludes one researcher.