1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works, everybody, I'm 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:10,680 Speaker 1: Christian Seger, and this is brain stuff. You have surely 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: heard of placebos, their phony drugs that real drugs are 4 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: tested against. But have you ever wondered how someone could 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: be fooled into thinking they've received a powerful chemical compound 6 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: when all they've been given is in a inert sugar pill. Well, 7 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: fortunately some researchers have wondered too, and they've come up 8 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,840 Speaker 1: with some really astounding answers. Placebo actually means I will 9 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: please in Latin, and they take their name from mourners 10 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,879 Speaker 1: who are hired to be sad at funerals. Back in 11 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: medieval times, the mourners were fake in the term eventually 12 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: came to be applied to fake drugs. As many as 13 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: half of all physicians admit to having used placebos in 14 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: their general practices, usually in the form of vitamins. Back 15 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 1: in the day, physicians used placebos when they had no 16 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: other avenues of treatment available. They had nothing to lose, 17 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: and neither did the patients, so you know who cared. 18 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: Placebos became a standard component of the double blind study, 19 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: where participants are split into groups that either get the 20 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:15,960 Speaker 1: drug or get the placebo. The logic there is that 21 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: if the real drug elicits a stronger response than the 22 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: fake drug, you know, the placebo, then it's proven successful. 23 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: Bingo it works. The thing is, some researchers noticed that 24 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: a lot of people in the double blind studies who 25 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: received placebos still had positive reactions to them. As many 26 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:40,320 Speaker 1: as one third of all people respond favorably to placebos. 27 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: And let's recap here. Sick people are given fake drugs 28 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: like a sugar pill, and then they get better as 29 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: a result. This is not supposed to happen, so studies 30 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: were launched to find out what was going on. One 31 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: two thousand four study in Michigan gave participants a painful 32 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,800 Speaker 1: but harmless injection in their jaws. Then they were given 33 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: a saline injection they were told was a pain reliever. 34 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: Saline has no pain relieving properties, hence it was a 35 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,640 Speaker 1: placebo injection. Astoundingly, the researchers found that the pain levels 36 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: went down in everyone in the study following this injection. 37 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: When viewed through a PET scan, the researchers found the 38 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: participants brains had released endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, So 39 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: a fake injection elicited a genuine biological response because of 40 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: the placebo. The people's pain decreased, not just in their minds, 41 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: but in actuality. And it's not just saline injections and 42 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,720 Speaker 1: sugar pills that can elicit a placebo effect. What conventional 43 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: medicine considers sham treatments like say acupuncture, have been shown 44 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: to at least produce a placebo effect, and even sham 45 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,400 Speaker 1: sham treatments can to like for instance, in tests of 46 00:02:55,560 --> 00:03:00,799 Speaker 1: acupuncture that use retractable needles. Even more sounding is the 47 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,840 Speaker 1: no sebo effect. Not only can fake drugs and treatments 48 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: produce a positive response, people can suffer from negative side 49 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: effects from placebo's two. So what is going on here? Well, 50 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,959 Speaker 1: researchers explanations typically fall into two camps. The subject expectancy 51 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 1: effect where people know what the outcome should be and 52 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: unconsciously conform to that expected outcome, and classical conditioning like 53 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: Pavlov's dogs, but instead of salivating at a bell, we 54 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: experience relief through what we think is a drug. The jury, however, 55 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: is still out on what exactly is behind the placebo effect. Ethically, 56 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: there's a wrestling match going on. On one hand, the 57 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: idea that people can heal through the power of their 58 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: own bodies rather than through powerful drugs that often have 59 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: undesirable side effects. Well, it's a good thing. On the 60 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:58,400 Speaker 1: other informing patients truthfully is a tenet of modern medicine, 61 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: and placebo's require pretty much outright lying by doctors. So 62 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 1: what to do. Some clever physicians have figured out a loophole. 63 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: They can offer a placebo as a cure to a patient, 64 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 1: but tell them they're not sure how the drug works. 65 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: All that's missing is the wink and the nudge. Check 66 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:25,840 Speaker 1: out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for more 67 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff 68 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: works dot com.