Increased concern about overmedicating patients is pushing more and more physicians to investigate new approaches to relieving suffering. It’s even prompting some doctors to consider what was once the unthinkable – offering their patients placebos.
Of course, research into the placebo effect has been going on for centuries. Nineteenth century health researcher and Christian healer, Mary Baker Eddy, described her treatment of a patient with edema. Fearing the prolonged use of her current medication, Eddy finally gave the woman unmedicated pellets – and the woman continued to improve until she was well.
More recently, associate professor of medicine at Harvard University, Ted Kaptchuk, performed a clinical drug trial on 270 subjects who were suffering from extreme pain. He told them that he was conducting a study comparing drug –based therapy with acupuncture treatments. Most of his patients reported real relief, and those who received acupuncture treatment reported even better results. Ironically, the pills that they had been given were made of cornstarch and the acupuncture needles were retractable shams that never pierced the skin.
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Placebo treatment is not always a deception. The science and medicine journal PLOS ONE published a study that compared two groups of people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). One group received “fake” pills – actually labeled “placebo pills”. They were informed that placebos often have healing effects.
Kaptchuk reported, “Even patients who knew they were taking placebos described real improvement, reporting twice as much symptom relief as the no-treatment group. That’s a difference so significant, it’s comparable to the improvement seen in trials for the best real IBS drugs.”
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So, how much does this tell us about how what we think affects our health? Eddy wondered what part the human mind plays in the cure of disease. She wrote, “The prescription which succeeds in one instance fails in another, and this is owing to the different mental states of the patient” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 149). This is an important insight if one is focused on finding solutions – outcomes – rather than simply verifying presumptive methodologies.
Studies continue to prove that our thinking affects our health in many ways – the health benefits of gratitude, love, and forgiveness; and the dangerous effects of hate and envy. This leads us to ask, what about thought imbued with the Divine? Does that produce relief from pain and sickness?
Just recently I had quite a painful internal condition. Instead of taking pain medication, I decided to use a prayer-based approach to treatment developed by Eddy. I studied the Bible and other spiritual literature in order to imbue my thought with the power of God. And, as I began to feel wrapped in divine peace and comfort, the pain completely disappeared.
Ultimately, one of the most useful outcomes of placebo research is that it is opening the door to the consideration of approaches that recognize the importance of our mental and spiritual nature rather than the physical alone. As we recognize the importance of thought in making the body well, it increasingly makes sense to include pastoral, meditative and prayer-based therapies in the cure of disease.
Thomas (Tim) Mitchinson is a self-syndicated columnist writing on the relationship between thought, spirituality and health, and trends in that field. He is also the media spokesman for Christian Science in Illinois. You can contact him at illinois@compub.org.
