Do Placebos have side effects?
You have heard all about the miraculous placebo effect. The so-called dummy pill or procedure which gives you relief from many problems like pain, stress, or insomnia is research-backed and practiced by many doctors. But do placebos have side effects? Are there any known negative effects of taking placebos? Let’s find out.
How it cures
It is a treatment that uses your expectations and brain chemistry to heal your ailments. Stress, being a mental state, can contribute to high blood pressure and increases the risk for heart disease. This doesn't mean that stress is an imaginary state but it has a known and effective role in the development of many diseases. A diseased mindset can cause many other problems. However, a positive, healing mindset can help you get relief for many of your problems. Just like your mind can contribute to a physical problem it can also give the remedy. This is where the placebo comes into action.
Nocebo: The argument against placebo
Placebo is a powerful treatment despite the fact that there is nothing special used for it. It only uses the mind's expectations or hopes to create a state of positivity in the brain which creates a chemical change leading to positive physical effects. Just like everything comes with a price, placebos also come with some side effects. A few people have claimed that placebo can cause nausea, allergy, sleepiness which is termed as a nocebo.
What is the ‘nocebo’ effect?
Placebo is a positive effect bringing relief to real wellness problems. Nocebo is the opposite of the placebo and brings about a negative effect. It is brought due to the patient’s negative mindset or expectations while taking treatment. It can also be induced by your own physician when he tells you to expect a negative outcome. Sometimes you are so scared about treatment and expect something bad to happen and it actually happens in the form of aches, pains, or nausea. These unpleasant symptoms are known as nocebos.
Placebo vs Nocebo
Placebo effect and nocebo effect are the two types of outcomes and the only difference between them is an expectation that triggers the effect. If it is positive, it generates a cure but if it is negative it creates a problem. This simply means that the person taking the placebo experienced what he expects to happen. If the person thinks he will get better with the treatment, he may get better. If the person thinks the treatment he is getting is too strong and will make him feel worse, he probably will end up with unpleasant symptoms. These can include headaches, anxiety, nausea, or stomach issues.
It is important to note that the placebo taken in any form, is not the actual cause of the effects. It has no direct effects actually but it plays with the mind power. The person’s belief in the treatment and the response of his brain to that belief is what actually causes the effect. Placebo can have any form. Some people experience the placebo effect even without getting a pill or injection. They can feel better by just visiting the doctor or a certain activity. It could be anything that they believe in with all their heart. The degree of confidence and faith the patient has in the treatment determines how much the placebo will affect him.
The Verdict
Unlike many medicines, placebos do not trigger side effects. Sometimes they can also be not related to the trial or treatment and the patient was supposed to have the effect anyway. Misattribution of symptoms to placebo is also the reason behind the common harmful effects of placebos. Other than that, nocebos can be the reason behind the negative effects of the placebo.
This is why it is important to understand the role of a positive mindset in placebos and how it can pave the way towards the healing of mind, body, and soul.