PLACEBO HEALING: MINDBODY POWER AT WORK
The placebo effect has long been viewed as a mysterious, intriguing factor that contributes to healing. Usually a placebo intervention is "fake" -- a sugar pill instead of actual medication, a bogus therapy or even surgery. Although placebo is generally used with a control group for research purposes, in order to compare the results with individuals who receive the "real" treatment, there is increasing awareness that the positive effects of placebo may be as great as the "real" medication or treatment and therefore a healing resource on their own.
Placebo refers to the belief and the expectation that the treatment will work. Placebo does not affect brain chemistry directly like usual medication or surgical treatment. Rather, a positive outlook about treatment and the belief that it will work somehow changes the neurochemistry and the symptoms are relieved.
Perhaps one of the most compelling areas of study on the effects of placebo has been research conducted in the area of placebo surgery. In the summer of 1994, an orthopedic surgeon recruited ten middle aged and older men, all former military, with significant knee pain from arthritis. All were told that they would be wheeled into an operating room, draped, examined and anesthetized. All 10 would be sent home from the hospital the next morning equipped with crutches and a painkiller. But there the similarities ended because only two of the men would undergo the standard arthroscopic surgery for their condition -- the scraping and rinsing of the knee joint -- and three would have the rinsing alone, but five would have no recognized surgical procedure at all.
The surgeon would cut the placebo patients' knees three times with a scalpel -- to make it feel and look real, there had to be incisions and later, scars -- but that was it. Even he didn't know until he entered the O.R. and opened an envelope telling him whether he was doing a real procedure or a fake one.
Another compelling study is in the area of stem-cell transplant. In 2001, researchers tested a new treatment for Parkinson's disease which involved finding out if transplants of embryonic brain cells could help. All 39 patients had holes drilled into their skulls under local anesthesia but only half of the patients actually received stem cell transplants. The other half received no treatment at all.
The results are truly amazing. After the surgery, 30 of the original 39 patients took part in a follow-up questionnaire. A full year later, patients who believed they had received actual brain-cell transplants did better than those who really received the treatment but believed they had received the placebo. And those patients who believed they received the transplant, whether or not they did, reported significantly better quality of life.
Many more placebo studies have also been focused on medications. One of the most well-known early research accounts focused on a cancer drug called Krebiozen was getting sensational publicity as a possible "cure" for cancer. One of the patients in the new drug trial, a Mr. Wright, was suffering from cancer of the lymph nodes, and none of the standard treatments were working. His neck, armpits, chest, abdomen, and groin were filled with tumors the size of oranges, and his spleen and liver were so enlarged that two quarts of milky fluid had to be drained out of his body each day.
Wright found out about the Kreblozen trial and begged so hard to be in the study however, that even though he did not qualify for the study, his doctor decided to give him one injection on Friday, with the thought that Wright wouldn't last the weekend.
On the following Monday, however, his doctor found Wright out of bed and walking around. Reports were that his tumors had "melted like snowballs on a hot stove" and were half their original size.
Ten days after Wright's first Krebiozen treatment, he left the hospital, and as far as his doctors could tell, with no signs of cancer and with no discomfort.
Wright remained well for about two months, but then he read articles that had begun to appear asserting that Krebiozen actually had no effect on cancer of the lymph nodes. Wright, who was rigidly logical and scientific in his thinking, became very depressed, suffered a relapse, and was readmitted to the hospital. This time his physician decided to try an experiment.
He told Wright that Krebiozen was every bit as effective as it had seemed, but that some of the initial supplies of the drug had deteriorated during shipping. He explained, however, that he had a new highly concentrated version of the drug and could treat Wright with this. In truth, however, the physician did not have a new version of the drug and injected Wright with nothing more than plain sterile water (placebo).
Patient Wright remained symptom-free for another two months, but then he read the American Medical Association's announcement that a nationwide study of Krebiozen had found the drug worthless in the treatment of cancer. This time Wright's faith was completely shattered. His cancer blossomed anew and he died two days later. This story is tragic, but it has a powerful message: When we can tap the healing forces of positive belief, our minds are powerful enough to promote amazing recovery, such as melting tumors away overnight! In this case, the patient's mind power appeared to create the recovery in his body -- and then later contribute to his demise.
But here's something even more fascinating. Distance healing may have even more powerful effects than placebo, and without as much risk and complexity. Some of the most surprising evidence for remote healing comes from psychologist William Braud and his colleagues at The Mind Science Foundation of San Antonio, Texas. Braud's studies, conducted over the course of 17 years, involved having people mentally attempt to influence the nervous system of remote participants (see www.itp.edu/academics/faculty/braud/publications.php).
Braud connected the first group of people, called "receivers," to machines that measured 7 different physiological responses like blood pressure, skin conductivity and muscle tremor. A second group of people, called "senders," were placed in a different room and told to try and arouse or calm the receiver, depending on instructions -- only by thinking about them. Both senders and receivers were ordinary people who had volunteered for the study. Braud's 37 experiments included 665 sessions, 449 people and 13 experimenters. What he found was that at the exact moment the sender was asked to think of their receiver, the receiver would show a change in his or her physiological condition. The 37 experiments combined resulted in results more than 100 trillion-to-one in favor of powerful distant mental interactions between participants. In short, the ability of one person's mind to affect another person's body is a scientific fact.
To understand the significance of this, consider that in medical tests the effect size of aspirin on reducing heart attack is 0.03, with those of stronger medications like propranolol even higher, at 0.04. But the effect size of distant healing in Braud's experiments was a surprising 0.25! This means that if 100 people were going through a therapy with a success rate of 35%, this success rate might go up to 60% if distant healing were added, which means that success with many treatments might be almost doubled.
William Braud identified five "mind" techniques that he believed have important effects on self-healing:
1) The need for relaxation and quiet.
2) Learning to focus your attention on one thing (e.g. breathing), which allows you to develop mental self-control and avoid distractions.
3) Learning visualization or imagery techniques since pictures are the preferred language of the mind.
4) Incorporating intention, or a wish for some goal to be reached and an expectation that it will.
5) Evoking strong positive emotions during the healing process.
There are many ways of achieving these five skills, and most of them we are exploring in this month's ecourse on "Ego-State Therapy and Mind-Body Healing" (if you are a professional, click here to register now). Jesse Cannone, creator of losethebackpain.com recommends the Silva Healing Mind method, which was developed even before Braud's research. The 5 steps of the Silva Healing Mind method include: 1) Reaching the alpha level of mind awareness (explore the audio download below to help with this step).
2) Visualize your current state of health in your mind's eye using your imagination.
3) Envision yourself healing and getting better and healthier.
4) Create your final picture as one of perfect, full health.
5) Let go of worry and trust your body's ability to heal itself.
She quotes Dr. Herbert Spiegel, past-president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, in stating that "the placebo effect can occur when conditions are optimal for hope, faith, trust and love." A world in which placebo -- preferably in the form of deft encouragement, but sometimes in the form of a harmless pill -- was tolerated, even embraced, might be a world in which doctors never forgot that medical practice consists not only of the technologies of diagnosis and treatment but also of the careful tending of a patient's expectations, the shameless willingness to comfort, and the "sending" of healing intentions and messages. It would probably be a world in which doctors kept in mind the uses of optimism, and one in which many of us might encounter a much more secure and expansive experience of good health.
Have a great month and thanks for reading,
The three session e-course with Claire Frederick and me on 