The placebo effect was proposed by Dr. Bique in 1955. It refers to the phenomenon that although patients receive ineffective treatment, they "expect" or "believe" that the treatment is effective, so that the patient's symptoms are relieved. . The placebo effect is a very powerful phenomenon that can significantly improve the symptoms of at least 1/3 or even more patients. It is also understood as a "non-specific effect" or a subject's expectation effect.
In fact, humans have a long history of using placebos . Long before the invention of antibiotics, doctors often gave patients powders they knew were useless, and the patients thought they had hope. But in the end, in some of these cases, the patients made miraculous recoveries. There are also many patients who feel that their pain is relieved after seeing a trusted doctor explain it. This is where the placebo effect comes into play.
In fact, the placebo effect is more likely to occur in patients. About 35% of patients with physical diseases and 40% of patients with mental illness will have this effect. It is precisely because of the psychological characteristics of patients that quack doctors and witch doctors and warlocks are able to use their skills. For example, various health products are very popular, and they also use the placebo effect to exert psychological suggestion and psychological hypnosis effects on users.
People who are prone to corresponding psychological and physiological effects when using placebos are called placebo responders. The personality characteristics of this kind of person are: dependent, easily suggestible, easy to pay attention to various physiological changes and discomforts of oneself, and prone to hypochondriasis.
In real life, the placebo effect is not only applicable to the treatment process of patients. It is also very similar to the previously shared Barnum effect (Learn a little psychology every day | Barnum effect/Fowler effect). . It is reflected in the selectivity of everyone's thinking. Everyone will give priority to information that is consistent with themselves, or choose some information that they can accept. The Barnum effect is a tendency to seek common ground that affects people's cognition, and comfort The agent effect is a self-healing mechanism that affects people's cognition.
In essence, this is a kind of cognitive bias, which is a manifestation of individual selective belief. From the perspective of "survival of the fittest" rather than "survival of the strong" proposed by evolutionary psychology , the existence of these cognitive biases has its rationality, and sometimes it is a defensive manifestation of the self.
Of course, looking at the placebo effect from a dialectical perspective, combined with affordance theory, it is precisely because of the use of placebo that the subjects improved their symptoms, which also played a role in being treated. .
The limitations of modern medicine are due to uncertainty, imprecision, and incompleteness. Compared with the rigor of evidence-based medicine, soothing the soul is more like a metaphysics. However, as this American doctor said more than a hundred years ago, Quotes are considered to tell the truth of modern medicine, life itself is full of mysteries.
"Occasionally heals, often helps, always comforts."
