WEBVTT - How Does The Placebo Effect Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works, everybody, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Christian Seger, and this is brain stuff. You have surely

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<v Speaker 1>heard of placebos, their phony drugs that real drugs are

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<v Speaker 1>tested against. But have you ever wondered how someone could

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<v Speaker 1>be fooled into thinking they've received a powerful chemical compound

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<v Speaker 1>when all they've been given is in a inert sugar pill. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>fortunately some researchers have wondered too, and they've come up

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<v Speaker 1>with some really astounding answers. Placebo actually means I will

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<v Speaker 1>please in Latin, and they take their name from mourners

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<v Speaker 1>who are hired to be sad at funerals. Back in

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<v Speaker 1>medieval times, the mourners were fake in the term eventually

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<v Speaker 1>came to be applied to fake drugs. As many as

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<v Speaker 1>half of all physicians admit to having used placebos in

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<v Speaker 1>their general practices, usually in the form of vitamins. Back

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<v Speaker 1>in the day, physicians used placebos when they had no

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<v Speaker 1>other avenues of treatment available. They had nothing to lose,

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<v Speaker 1>and neither did the patients, so you know who cared.

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<v Speaker 1>Placebos became a standard component of the double blind study,

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<v Speaker 1>where participants are split into groups that either get the

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<v Speaker 1>drug or get the placebo. The logic there is that

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<v Speaker 1>if the real drug elicits a stronger response than the

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<v Speaker 1>fake drug, you know, the placebo, then it's proven successful.

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<v Speaker 1>Bingo it works. The thing is, some researchers noticed that

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people in the double blind studies who

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<v Speaker 1>received placebos still had positive reactions to them. As many

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<v Speaker 1>as one third of all people respond favorably to placebos.

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<v Speaker 1>And let's recap here. Sick people are given fake drugs

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<v Speaker 1>like a sugar pill, and then they get better as

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<v Speaker 1>a result. This is not supposed to happen, so studies

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<v Speaker 1>were launched to find out what was going on. One

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand four study in Michigan gave participants a painful

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<v Speaker 1>but harmless injection in their jaws. Then they were given

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<v Speaker 1>a saline injection they were told was a pain reliever.

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<v Speaker 1>Saline has no pain relieving properties, hence it was a

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<v Speaker 1>placebo injection. Astoundingly, the researchers found that the pain levels

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<v Speaker 1>went down in everyone in the study following this injection.

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<v Speaker 1>When viewed through a PET scan, the researchers found the

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<v Speaker 1>participants brains had released endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, So

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<v Speaker 1>a fake injection elicited a genuine biological response because of

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<v Speaker 1>the placebo. The people's pain decreased, not just in their minds,

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<v Speaker 1>but in actuality. And it's not just saline injections and

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<v Speaker 1>sugar pills that can elicit a placebo effect. What conventional

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<v Speaker 1>medicine considers sham treatments like say acupuncture, have been shown

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<v Speaker 1>to at least produce a placebo effect, and even sham

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<v Speaker 1>sham treatments can to like for instance, in tests of

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<v Speaker 1>acupuncture that use retractable needles. Even more sounding is the

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<v Speaker 1>no sebo effect. Not only can fake drugs and treatments

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<v Speaker 1>produce a positive response, people can suffer from negative side

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<v Speaker 1>effects from placebo's two. So what is going on here? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>researchers explanations typically fall into two camps. The subject expectancy

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<v Speaker 1>effect where people know what the outcome should be and

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<v Speaker 1>unconsciously conform to that expected outcome, and classical conditioning like

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<v Speaker 1>Pavlov's dogs, but instead of salivating at a bell, we

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<v Speaker 1>experience relief through what we think is a drug. The jury, however,

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<v Speaker 1>is still out on what exactly is behind the placebo effect. Ethically,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a wrestling match going on. On one hand, the

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<v Speaker 1>idea that people can heal through the power of their

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<v Speaker 1>own bodies rather than through powerful drugs that often have

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<v Speaker 1>undesirable side effects. Well, it's a good thing. On the

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<v Speaker 1>other informing patients truthfully is a tenet of modern medicine,

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<v Speaker 1>and placebo's require pretty much outright lying by doctors. So

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<v Speaker 1>what to do. Some clever physicians have figured out a loophole.

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<v Speaker 1>They can offer a placebo as a cure to a patient,

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<v Speaker 1>but tell them they're not sure how the drug works.

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<v Speaker 1>All that's missing is the wink and the nudge. Check

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<v Speaker 1>out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for more

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<v Speaker 1>on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff

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<v Speaker 1>works dot com.