How Placebos Really Work | Newsweek.com
In one 1999 study, after patients had received several doses of a morphinelike drug for post-op pain, a placebo produced the same respiratory depression: the brain had learned, at the neuronal level, that injection equals slow, shallow breathing, and responded that way even to an inert compound. "The response is completely unconscious," says Benedetti. Similarly, when he and colleagues gave volunteers a cortisol-lowering drug twice, and then a placebo, the placebo mimicked the cortisol-decreasing action of the drug, regardless of what patients expected. Pavlovian conditioning also seems to be behind placebo effects on the immune system.
When scientists repeatedly gave the powerful immune suppressant cyclosporine (used to prevent rejection of transplanted organs) along with a flavored drink, and then the drink alone, the patients' immune systems were as quiet as when on the drug. It was like finding that Kool-Aid can prevent transplant rejection. Mind over matter had struck again.
In one 1999 study, after patients had received several doses of a morphinelike drug for post-op pain, a placebo produced the same respiratory depression: the brain had learned, at the neuronal level, that injection equals slow, shallow breathing, and responded that way even to an inert compound. "The response is completely unconscious," says Benedetti. Similarly, when he and colleagues gave volunteers a cortisol-lowering drug twice, and then a placebo, the placebo mimicked the cortisol-decreasing action of the drug, regardless of what patients expected. Pavlovian conditioning also seems to be behind placebo effects on the immune system.
When scientists repeatedly gave the powerful immune suppressant cyclosporine (used to prevent rejection of transplanted organs) along with a flavored drink, and then the drink alone, the patients' immune systems were as quiet as when on the drug. It was like finding that Kool-Aid can prevent transplant rejection. Mind over matter had struck again.
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