Why positive thinking helps the body to heal: Knowingly taking a placebo makes you feel better

Taking any form of medicine when you feel run down has long been recognised by doctors as making people feel better.

Now it seems that harmless sugar pills can ease symptoms even when patients realise they are swallowing placebos.

This, scientists say, suggests that simply thinking positively encourages healing.
In tests, 40 patients with irritable bowel disorder were given a tablet with no active ingredients.

Faking it: Scientists say that simply thinking positively encourages healing after it was found that harmless sugar pills can ease symptoms even when patients know they are swallowing placebos

After three weeks they reported fewer symptoms than those given no pills at all.

Researcher Dr Ted Kaptchuk, of Harvard University Medical School, said: ‘Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had “placebo” printed on the bottle. We told the patients they didn’t have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills.’

In clinical trials of medicines, patients are allocated either a real medicine or a placebo.

However, usually both they and the doctors assessing their health are unaware which pill they receive.

Even though a placebo contains no active ingredients, people given them often feel better and have improved symptoms.

Scientists say the so-called placebo effect explains why many alternative therapies – such as homeopathy and reflexology – appear to work.

Some doctors give placebos to unsuspecting patients.

It was assumed that placebos work because people believe they are taking real drugs, but this latest study suggests otherwise.

In the trial, nearly 60 per cent of patients treated with the dummy pill reported ‘adequate symptom relief’, compared with just 35 per cent of people given no pills.

Patients taking the placebo doubled their rates of improvement to a degree roughly equivalent to the effects of the most powerful IBS medications.

‘I didn’t think it would work,’ researcher Dr Anthony Lembo of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Massachusetts told the journal PLoS One.

‘I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo.

Feeling better: Subliminal conditioning may trigger the release of hormones and affect people's immune responses, helping them to feel better

‘But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them.’

The scientists said that larger trials on other illnesses are needed to confirm that placebos work for everyone.

Dr Kaptchuk added: ‘Nevertheless these findings suggest that rather than mere positive thinking, there may be significant benefit to the performance of medical ritual.

‘Placebo may work even if patients know it is a placebo.’

The results of the trial suggest that people who are open-minded about alternative medicine could benefit from a placebo effect even if they are unconvinced it works.

Placebos have been shown to ease pain, depression, stress and inflammatory disease.

Some researchers believe many patients have subconscious associations between the experience of being treated – such as taking a pill or sitting in a doctor’s surgery – and recovery from illness.

This subliminal conditioning may trigger the release of hormones and affect people’s immune responses, helping them to feel better.

There is no cure for irritable bowel syndrome, which causes stomach pains, bloating and constipation.

However, antidepressants and laxatives can ease the symptoms.