The impact of placebo on control groups in pharmacological research has long been a puzzling and attractive subject to me. The suggestion that people can reduce symptoms and increase performance because they think that they are taking some new wonder drug/nutrient is appealing. The high performance cyclists in the programme were improving their times ( I think something like 2/3s of them improved) simply by taking a cornflour filled pill that they thought contained super nutrients. It was suggested that much of placebo was down to deception. This led to an interesting conundrum, how do you ethically make use of placebo? After all many think it is the deception that helps release dopamine, serotonin, and opiates into your body.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School began investigating the level of placebo if the patient knew in advance they were just receiving a cornflour pill. The results showed that in some cases the placebo, in this case reduction of IBS symptons, was as pronounced even though the patient had been fully briefed by their Doctor. Further research identified that the manner in which the Doctor engaged with the patient nearly doubled the placebo numbers if the Doctor used empathy and asked the patients questions about how they ‘felt’ prior to taking the placebo pills.
There are many misconceptions about hypnosis and I was pretty pleased that it was considered both credible and effective in this programme. In essence it was suggested that hypnotic language, suggestion and permission, helped create placebo. I have been working for many years as a therapist treating pain management using hypnosis in many different types of pain. Giving patients the permission t0 release pain reducing natural opiates as well as a reduction in the expectation of intolerable pain is something I find most satisfying and effective. Its actually reassuring to see that this is all about the patient allowing themselves to do this.
Applying placebo to business performance, if you could hit peak performance more often and I held out the red pill, that I suggested would help release the extra 3% of potential within you, the difference between being top of your field on in the also rans. If I then told you that you would create this yourself and you have a great chance of achieving it, would you take it? Or more importantly would you believe me?
Best wishes
Patrick