Picking apart the puzzle pieces of the placebo effect

Examining the neural circuits involved in 'honest' placebo-induced pain relief. PREMIUM CONTENT subscriber access

I described the Placebo and Nocebo Effects in my 2012 book: Be the Rainbow * Bridge Heaven and Earth: How-to Manual for Integrating Alternative and Evidence-Based Medicine

“Placebos can actually help cure people, or at least help them to feel better. Placebos — even when people knowingly take them — can work just as well as real drugs. And an effect of a placebo can persist for years. It seems that potent and powerful mojo comes along when using needle or knife. And the placebo phenomenon is shaped according to the personal symbolic universe of the individual patient. Somehow, the body is capable of reacting not only to direct physical and chemical stimulation, but also to symbolic stimuli, words and events that have special meaning for each individual.

We really do need to be aware of and understand this power of suggestion / belief in healing, because it does not always produce good effects. In fact, a nocebo is defined as a usually harmless substance taken by a patient that results in harmful effects when it is associated with the patient's negative expectations; it is the flip-side to the more desirable placebo effect.”

New studies now report intriguing brain results using functional MRI in humans and direct CNS stimulation in mice.