[MUSIC] This episode is sponsored by Dropbox Hello. Iâm Doctor Joseph Hanson, PhD. The following video about placebos has been
scientifically proven to cure viewers of boredom, fatigue, dad bod, Star Wars over-hype, chronic
back pain, and a host of other common ailments. Now open wide, it's time for science. [MUSIC] On the North African battlefields of WWII,
wounded soldiers were plentiful, but morphine was often scarce. Army doctor Henry Beecher needed to operate
on an injured soldier, but had no drugs to give him for the pain.
A desperate nurse grabbed a vial of salt water, filled a syringe, and miraculously the soldierâs
pain went away. When Henry Beecher returned to Harvard University
after the war, he found that a range of ailments, from gunshot wounds to the common cold, could
be treated with âfakeâ medicine. Itâs known as the placebo effect, from the
latin for âI shall please.â So whatâs in âem? Letâs turn to our
chemistry expert friends from Reactions. The perfect placebo has a look, color, and
taste of the drug it's being compared to. Ideally, it contains all the inactive ingredient
of the real pill but doesn't include the active drug ingredients.
That just leaves the other stuff that make up the bulk of the pills.
These might include sugar, that's why placebos are often called "sugar pills", cellulose
from plants, corn starch or yeast, along with other common ingredients that bind the pill
together and others that help it break down in your stomach.
Placebos used in big drug trials often contain, well actually we don't exactly know what these
placebos contain. In a study called "What in Placebos: Who Knows?"
researchers went through over 150 trials involving placebos from 4 medical journals. Only 8%
of the trials disclosed the placebo's ingredients, although no two placebos are created equal.
Some of them get better results. For more on that, here's Joe. A placebo capsule works better than a placebo
tablet, placebo injections work better than placebo capsules, and placebo machines work
better than placebo injections. Even having a nice long talk with a doctor
before taking a placebo can increase its effect. Taking two placebos is better than taking
one, expensive placebos stamped with brands work better than cheap generics, even putting
them in fancy packaging or giving them fancy names can add to all of this. Clearly, the effectiveness of a placebo is
tied to our perception of how sophisticated the treatment is. Even pill color can make a difference. Placebo
sleeping pills work best if theyâre blue, red placebos are better as stimulants or pain
relievers, and yellow placebos make better antidepressants. Itâs pretty wild. One thing with absolutely
no therapeutic value can work better than another thing with⌠absolutely no therapeutic
value. Some placebo effects are easy to explain.
I mean, sometimes people just get better. But we canât just write them off as fake
psychological tricks, placebos can lead to very real chemical changes in our bodies.
They can cause the brain to release its own natural pain killing chemicals, and they can
even improve symptoms in Parkinsonâs patients by releasing dopamine. It seems like where placebos do work, our
higher order brain functions are in play, like when they relieve pain, reduce stress,
or even change our moods. But they have limits, they canât shrink tumors, or cure infections,
or regrow limbs. These days, before drug companies can sell
a new medicine, they have to test it against a placebo.
The idea is pretty simple. Give one group of patients a sugar pill or something, and
one group the real drug, then see what happens. Subtract the placebo groupâs improvement
from the other group, and we should see if the drug has a real effect.
Simple, right? But strange things are happening these days.
Even with all our advancements in science, more and more drugs are failing to pass the
placebo test. Itâs as if the placebo effect is getting stronger. In countries like the United States, drugs
can be advertised directly to consumers⌠"Do you feel healthy, happy and comfortable?
Are you not suffering from headaches, indigestion or irritability? A lack of symptoms may be
a symptom of antohypochondriasis, commonly known as invisible illness disorder, or IID.
But now there's Contradictol! Contradictol brings hidden ailments to the surface so they
can be treated with other medications. Ask your doctor if Contradictol is right for you." All that marketing has increased our expectations
of what drugs can do, and as a result, some old drugs like Prozac perform worse in placebo
tests today than when they first came out. This growing placebo effect is making it harder
to figure out which real drugs really work. And just in case you think this couldnât
get any weirder⌠it gets weirder. In one study, patients were even told they
were receiving placebos, and they still felt real results. Likely because the doctors had
told them that placebos often have healing effects.
Clearly, the critical ingredient in a placebo is expectation. If they ever work, they work
because we expect them to. So much so, that a fake drug can also make a patient feel worse,
if thatâs what theyâre expecting. By this point some of you are probably asking,
if placebos are so effective, why not use them as real medicine?
Well, prescribing one thing but telling a patient theyâre taking a different thing
is deception, and according to Hippocrates, little white lies like those are not okay. But many doctors think parts of the placebo
effect can still be used without turning every practice into a carnival side show.
I mean, if talking to your patients more can make really them feel better, then why not
talk to your patients more? Thereâs a lot we donât understand about
how and why we sometimes get better. But in addition to all the amazing medicines weâve
got, itâs nice to know the brain has some quality medical care built in.
Next time you get sick, maybe you can find a little relief in knowing that the doctor
is always⌠in. Stay curious. Some of us take pills every day in the form
of vitamins and supplements. If you've ever wondered what's in 'em, or if they actually
work, follow me over to Reactions and find out more.
If anyone's curious, when he calls himself "Dr Joe Hanson, Ph.D", he's not making a joke. He has a doctorate degree in cell and molecular biology from The University of Texas at Austin