sign up for an annual subscription to receive CME credit for this activity and more! Learn more Here.On this week’s episode of the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy podcast, I interview Mark Ard, M.D., a third year psychiatry resident at Loma Linda University. On the state level, he works towards developing means of access to care, in-patient psychiatric care, affordability of care, and further access to mental health. Mark is also the person who encouraged me to start pursuing weight training through Starting Strength, which we will link in this article.

Understanding PlaceboDavid Puder, M.D., Mikyla Cho, Mark Ard, M.D.What is placebo? The original meaning of the word placebo is, “I will please.” That statement comes from a time when doctors didn’t have our modern code of ethics, and they would prescribe whatever would make the person feel better. They probably had the best intentions, but they also would have known that whatever they were prescribing might not have been a real medication for the symptoms the patient was experiencing. Doctors, even then, knew that suggestion was powerful, sometimes more powerful than the medicine they were prescribing.Laypeople who hear the word “placebo” automatically think of sugar pills. They may think only that it’s something a doctor gives to placate and make people feel better when they aren’t getting the active medication. Placebos have long been used as a comparison arm for clinical trials. Usually it is in the form of an inert sugar pill or sham-procedure. Researchers can observe a psychobiological response known as the placebo effect. But when thinking about the word “placebo,” we must think of the entire effect of it, and it is perhaps better termed “the meaning effect.” As I discussed in last week’s episode of the podcast, the meaning we give something creates belief, and belief is a potent change mechanism, even when it comes to our physical health. It is especially potent when it comes to mental health. The placebo effect encompasses the therapeutic alliance, expectations, natural healing of the body and mind, and the environment of therapy. It involves the power of suggestion, mood, and the beliefs behind even one positive or negative interaction with a doctor. It also, as we will see, involves studies involving heavy-hitting medication. When there is an increased ritual, there is an increased placebo effect. During a hospital stay, the surgery preparation, meetings with doctors, nurses and therapists can have an incredibly therapeutic effect on a patient. It is possible to see biological mechanisms triggered by psychosocial context and attribute it to a placebo effect. What is the power of suggestion, the meaning effect, placebo effect, and how do we use it or avoid it in our practices and when testing new medical treatments?Why do we study placebo?We study placebos because we need to understand how meaning works, how belief works, and on the other side, if a medicine actually works. As doctors, we need to be able to read studies critically, with an eye for placebo. We need to see what actually works and what the study was controlling the treatment group to. We also need to know if there parts of the treatment that are working only because of the placebo effect, and if so, how do we use that to heal people.How does the placebo effect work?The efficacy of the placebo goes up because of the expectation and meaning we give to placebo. In one study, half of the patients got the actual medication, half got the placebo. In the same study, in another group, 25% of the patients got the placebo, and 75% of them got the actual medication. In both of these studies, the participants were told the percentage chance they would get the real medication. In the study where only 25% of patients received the placebo, more people experienced positive changes from the treatment, whether they received the placebo or not. Most people believed, because of hearing the percentages, that they would proba