Saturdays are perfect days for medical surprises. Surprise—we’re talking about placebos and nocebos today!
Much about the human body and mind is still unknown to us, especially in the ways the two are inextricably linked. Any suspicion that medicine is a simple and predictable science of inputs and outputs evaporates once the concept of placebos is understood:
placebo (noun) - a treatment or substance that appears to be an authentic medical intervention, but is designed to have no therapeutic benefit; an inactive or inert preparation prescribed for the mental relief of a patient rather than for actual effect; a concession or solution offered to compensate for what someone really wants [pluh-see-boh]
—the placebo effect occurs when a person experiences a positive response to an inactive, inert, or intentionally ineffective treatment.
BREAKDOWN: The word placebo derives directly from the Latin phrase, "I will please you." The root PLAC- meaning please or peace appears in words like placate and placid.
Of course, the ability of the mind to influence the body doesn’t always work in our favor, as the existence of nocebos and drucebos illustrate:
nocebo (noun) - an inactive or inert preparation or treatment that induces harmful side effects or worsening of symptoms because of patient expectations or fears
—the nocebo effect occurs when a person experiences undesirable symptoms or illnesses in response to an inactive, inert, or intentionally ineffective treatment
—the drucebo effect refers to the negative side effects of a drug that are attributed to the patient's expectation of side effects, rather than the drug's actual pharmacological effects
BREAKDOWN: The word nocebo was coined as a variation of placebo from the Latin phrase, "I will harm you." The root NOC- meaning harm appears in words like innocuous and obnoxious. Drucebo is a 2018 variation based on DRU- for drug.
“Eventually it became clear that our emotions, attitudes, and thoughts profoundly affect our bodies, sometimes to the degree of life or death. Soon mind-body effects were recognized to have positive as well as negative impacts on the body. This realization came largely from research on the placebo effect—the beneficial results of suggestion, expectation, and positive thinking.” — Larry Dossey