Introduction
The use of placebo in medical studies continues to generate debate, especially the positive effects (benefits) of the placebos on patients. In most controlled studies, researchers use placebos as a means of comparing the efficacy of a substance under test. In such trials, experimenters attempt to avoid the placebo effect; whether good or bad. A placebo is any substance used in the medical field with no known medical impacts, for instance, a sugar pill (Savulescu, Wartolowska & Carr, 2015). As such, medical researchers seek to determine if a newly developed treatment is more effective than the existing one and thus create placebos. Initially, researchers never examined the effects of placebos on patients but with time, evidence continues to emerge that the placebo effect may offer benefits to patients. As such, this research paper examines the beneficial impacts of the placebo effect on patients through its research question: Does placebo effect offers benefits to patients?
As stated, the placebo effect is a positive therapeutic impact that a patient claims to get because of getting a placebo. While the ethical debate about the placebo effect continues, research into the topic demonstrates mixed reactions as some term the effect as unethical and other agree that the effect is ethical since it allows a patient to feel cured. Placebo effects help patients to recover since they let them believe that the placebos works once they are told by the medical researchers. Most people believe information from reliable people like doctors and medical researchers ( Harvard Medical School, 2017). Further, placebo effect does not happen if scientists or researchers pick out the problem from their process as they diminish the effect. The personal effects that patients feel when under a study is psychological and essential to their curing or healing them from their illnesses.
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In their randomized placebo-controlled trials in surgery, Julian Savulescu and colleagues (2015) argue that surgical controlled trials are beneficial and justified if such trials can improve function or relieve symptoms. These trials offer benefits not just to patients but also surgeon who may not have objective surgical outcomes of such procedures. AS such, placebo effects derived from the placebos allow the surgical team to have outcome objectives and lower the risk of mortality among patients. The authors also suggest that placebos benefit patients when they are carried out in an ethical way and the patient’s consent is valid and understand the kind of treatment that they have received. The researchers suggest that placebos offer benefits to the medical teams since they demonstrate true efficacy and allows them to understand effective treatments. The placebos also address the issue of biasness and enable the scientists to assess the risk-to-benefit ratio of any procedure that they may want to undertake in a surgical setting. They eliminate or substitute ‘doing nothing’ situation by establishing the efficacy of certain procedures through testing in situations where they cannot just sit back and do nothing. Another study by Usha Gupta and Menka Verma (2013) suggests that recent study evidence illustrates that placebo effects are real psychobiological phenomena associated with therapeutic outcomes. The authors also propose that placebo effects are strong in both clinical and laboratory settings. The authors acknowledge that placebo use is not equal to the lack of treatment but can be used in addition to standard care offered in a facility. The study suggests that the use of placebo should be focused on efforts to reduce exposure and prevent irreversible harm to a patient, particularly in fast evolving diseases. In a study, Remy Brim and Franklin Miller (2013) examine the potential benefit of placebo effects in sham-controlled trials and their implications for informed consent and risk-benefit to patients. The researchers suggest that placebo effects in sham procedure are substantial and well documented in scientific literature. Imperatively, they argue that the scientific evidence illustrates that placebo effects in sham controlled trials offer benefits to patients with Parkinson’s disease, particularly the management of pain. The authors propose that sham controlled trials offer direct benefits to Parkinson’s disease participants (Brim & Miller, 2013). They also suggest that ethics committees should consider the benefits that placebo effects offer to participants in their risk-to-benefit analyses and informed consent documentation.
These studies indicate that placebo effects offer benefits to patients in a variety of study trials as they feel that what the scientists test are real as opposed to trials (Harvard Medical School, 2017) . For instance, simple features on trial pills like color and taste create placebo effects as they make patients and participants feel that they will be cured by the drugs. In addition, other features of a drug like price can create a rift between participants’ belief and medicinal efficacy of the drugs. For example, the price of a drug among participants who receive a placebo painkiller may affect the effectiveness of the drug. As such, placebo effect benefits are assessed based on the psychological position of a patient. Patients that believe that the placebo will offer positive effects have increased chances of gaining from these trials and drugs being tested by scientists (Harvard Medical School, 2017) . Further, the placebo effect requires positive thinking where a participant believes that a treatment or procedure will work for their condition. The participant then creates a stronger connection between their brain and body so that they work together to ensure that the treatment is successful. Placebos work on symptoms of a condition like pain perception as modulated by the brain. As such, placebos make patients and participants to feel better and positive about their treatment but do not provide an ultimate cure for a disease or condition. Further, even in cases where participants react negatively to placebos, evidence suggests that such situations do not imply that placebos are not effective or do not offer benefits to participants (Harvard Medical School, 2017) . Pain management interventions in patients or participants are some of the most appropriate ways to demonstrate that placebos offer benefits as participants believe that when taking certain trials drugs, they get pain relieve since such pills are painkillers.
In their study on placebo effects in medicine, Ted Kaptchuk and Franklin Miller (2015) posit that when placebo effects are considered as illegitimate, unworthy, unscientific, and led by prejudice and bias, people are obscured from the main essence of medicine: to heal, which includes cure, control of the condition, and relieve of symptoms and provision of comfort. Therefore, if cure is not possible, medicine’s main goal shifts to the management of symptoms and relieve of unnecessary suffering and pain. Again, medicine can use placebos as a methodological tool aimed at challenging, debunking, and discarding harmful and ineffective treatments (Kaptchuk & Miller, 2015). Therefore, placebo effects offer benefits to participants and allow the medical professional to create better methods and means to obtain a cure and if it is impossible, to manage symptoms.
Conclusion
It follows that placebo effects are beneficial to the medical profession in their attempts to offer cure or manage suffering among patients. Further, the paper demonstrates that placebos are effective for patients who suffer from long-term illnesses since they allow medical practitioners to find means and procedures of improving patient outcomes. In addition, participants on placebos agree that they feel better and their brains and body get connected through the placebos. The paper illustrates that the argument against placebos is not scientific though placebos must be placed in medical context and be ethical to avoid harmful effects to participants and protect the medical profession from any perceived criticism for using them.
References
Gupta, U. and Verma, M. (2013) Placebo in Clinical Trials. Perspective in Clinical Research , vol.4 (1): pp.49-52. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601706/
Harvard Medical School (2017) The Power of the Placebo effect; Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
Kaptchuk, T.J & Miller, F.G. (2015) Placebo Effects in Medicine. The New England Journal of Medicine , vol.373, pp.8-9. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1504023
Miller, F.G. and Brim, R.L. (2013) The potential benefit of the placebo effect in sham-controlled trials: implications for risk-benefit assessments and informed consent. Journal of Medical Ethics , vol.39 (11); pp.703-707. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3812890/
Savulescu, J., Wartolowska, K. and Carr, A. (2015) Randomised placebo-controlled trials of surgery: ethical analysis and guidelines. Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 42, No.12. Retrieved from http://jme.bmj.com/content/42/12/776
