Been thinking about this for no particular reason, specifically like sugar pills. Do doctors just prescribe you a medication but they’re actually lying to you? Is that legal? Or are you made aware they’re placebos and they still work? Is that possible? Are they only for people who have a legal guardian that can keep the secret? I feel like it should be obvious but I really don’t know.
(also sorry if flair is wrong, i don’t really know where medicine would fall here)
In: Chemistry
There are some aspects of your body’s functioning that are affected by your thoughts. Your current mindset can affect your pain tolerance (if you’re afraid that something will hurt, this makes it hurt even worse), or your heart rate (someone who is stressed out has a faster heartbeat), for example. This means that if you take a sugar pill and you’re told it’s a painkiller, you’ll think that you’re more resistant to pain and that’ll make you ignore a bit of pain. If you’re having an anxiety attack and your heart is beating like crazy, a placebo could help bring your heart rate down.
It should be noted that real medication will induce the placebo effect on top of its actual purpose too. When I have a cold and I take a Tylenol or Advil, I start to feel better immediately, before the drug should actually be taking effect, because knowing that my symptoms are about to go down affects my mindset.
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