A recent study suggests that the treatment of a patient works better if the doctors trust in the potency of their treatment. Researchers working on the new study, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Human Behavior, says that doctors can transfer their placebo effect to patients. The study shows the amount of change a treatment can bring if the doctors themselves trust the medicines they are administering.
As a part of the research, the study authors examined the impact of the placebo effect by testing it on some 200 participants who are currently in their undergrad. The participants were randomly divided into groups of doctors and patients to test the outcome. Participants playing the role of doctors were made to believe by the researchers that one out of the two creams was, in fact, a pain reliever called ‘thermedol’. The participants playing doctor administered the pain-relieving cream and the other placebo to participants playing patients. However, both the creams provided by the researchers were in-fact plain petroleum jelly creams.
The results from the tests showed that the participants playing patients reported experiencing less pain after they were given the ‘thermedol’ for a heat-based pain stimulus they received on their forearms. These participants reported a lesser amount of pain than those who were given the placebo. The study authors revealed that the ‘patients’ were able to pick up some signals from the expressions of the ‘doctors.’ This suggested that the treatment was more effective if the doctors believe in their own treatments.
The study authors wrote that “The fact that even participants with no medical expertise or training showed transmitted placebo effects through a brief social interaction in a highly controlled laboratory environment indicates that the influence of doctors’ expectations on patients’ outcomes will probably be even larger.” The study authors called for more research in the area and said that the real-life outcome of such an experiment would have been even more distinct.
Steve Lopez is the Editorial Page Editor for News Raise. He covers Health. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards for his reporting and column writing at seven newspapers and four news magazines.
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