The Placebo Effect
and the Psyche's Healing Response
By Ursula R. Stehle, Ph.D.
The placebo effect is a treatment phenomenon that occurs in the absence of medication or external manipulations like radiation or mechanical stimulation. Research has shown that a significant part of patients' response to medication is due to the placebo effect. Multiple studies have found that the placebo effect associated with medications is proportional to the apparent effectiveness of the drugs themselves (Rossi, 86) and that this psychological response is consistent and independent of the chemical substance of the drug used. Some examples of the placebo effect associated with common medications:
- Analgesics: 55 percent placebo effect from 22 studies
- Anti-depressants: 59 percent placebo effect from 93 studies (Morris & Beck, 1974)
- Lithium: 62 percent placebo effect from 13 studies (Marini, Sheard, Bridges & Wagner, 1976)
Unfortunately, we often devalue these healing effects as insubstantial or as something that's just in our head." It's difficult to comprehend an effect not based in concrete and visible intervention. We are conditioned to look for a cause-and-effect relationship that can be duplicated and is independent of subjective factors such as personality, belief, feeling, and experience. But what placebo studies measure is the healing effect of hope, encouragement, and the belief that one is being helped. These are subjective experiences that reside within each of us. They belong to the realm of psyche. The placebo response is a sign of our own innate capacity to heal.
Our psyche is attuned to the quality of experience; it mediates between outer events and inner experience. Our psyche is wed to our body and therefore our greatest asset in effecting physical change. If I can see my symptoms as challenges to my growth, and if I can experience my grief as a process that integrates loss into my soul, then perhaps healing can occur more easily.
Last modified on 01.13.10
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