Page 68 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE MINDS MATTER

immunosuppression drugs that lower the rejection
rate in organ-transplant patients, as well as relieve
cold symptoms and allergic skin reactions.
This type of conditioning is mostly unconscious:
we don’t have to will our bodies to think of saline
as morphine. But we are also quick studies. What
would a caveman make of the assortment of pills
in our medicine cabinets? Absolutely nothing. But

we have come to expect certain types of relief from
medicines of particular shapes, sizes and colors.
We also expect a certain expertise and competence
when we see high-tech equipment, white lab coats
and diplomas on the wall. Doctors know what they
are doing, but it also helps that we believe they know
what they are doing.

There is no simple way to determine who will
What we don’t know or who won’t respond to a placebo.
not all placebo effects are created equal.
In fact, a patient may not even experience them the
same way each time. This is why one of the current probably because their disease disrupts placebo
goals of research is to accurately quantify the pla- pathways.
cebo response. Researchers are also trying to home And how long does a placebo effect last, anyway?
in on the illnesses that are most receptive to pla- Researchers can’t answer that one for sure either,
cebos. Parkinson’s patients, for example, produce though studies so far have tracked only short-term

more dopamine (a neurotransmitter in the brain results. Nor do we know why some people seem im-
that helps regulate motor function) after they are mune to placebos. If, after all, human bodies and
given a placebo injection that they are told will re- brains have evolved to respond to placebos, why
lieve their symptoms. Alzheimer’s patients, on the don’t we all respond the same way? “Natural vari-
other hand, do not seem to benefit from placebos, ability can certainly explain the range in response,”

It’s almost an article of faith that a supporting the emotional and
strong ally in the fight against cancer psychological needs of patients.
is a doggedly optimistic outlook. It was research in the 1970s
When Sunny And it would seem that mounting and ’80s that first popularized
evidence of the links between the idea that attitude might sway
Thoughts emotional and physical well-being cancer outcomes. Such research
would bolster that view. The only led doctors to encourage patients to
Fall Short problem, according to Jimmie think happy thoughts and visualize
Holland, a pioneering psychiatrist
their immune system blasting away
There’s a downside to at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer tumor cells. And yet, while studies
believing a positive Center, is that there is little evidence have found that a positive outlook
to support that belief when it comes can correlate with the perception
attitude is all you need to cancer. Moreover, the “tyranny of less pain by patients—a real
By David Bjerklie of positive thinking,” as Holland, benefit—the evidence that coping
who died in 2018, called it, often styles play a key role in survival or
becomes just one more burden recurrence is far from conclusive.
for the afflicted. Cancer patients Still, the optimism theory
shouldn’t feel obliged to smile remains seductive. And we know
through their suffering or feel guilty that mental states like depression
if their treatment fails, said Holland, and chronic anxiety can have
who was a tireless advocate in physical consequences that affect