Placebo Effect

The Placebo Effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered.

Placebo effects can arise not only from a conscious belief in a drug but also from subconscious associations between recovery and the experience of being treated—from the pinch of a shot to a doctor’s white coat. Such subliminal conditioning can control bodily processes of which we are unaware, such as immune responses and the release of hormones.

When a treatment is based on a known inactive substance like a sugar pill, distilled water, or saline solution rather than having real medical value, a patient may still improve merely because their expectation to do so is so strong. To eliminate the effect of positive thinking on clinical trials, researchers often run double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.

A placebo (Latin: I shall please)^[2] is a sham or simulated medical intervention that can produce a (perceived or actual) improvement, called a placebo effect.

In medical research, placebos depend on the use of controlled and measured deception. Common placebos are inert tablets, sham surgery,^[3] and other procedures based on false information. However, placebo can surprisingly also have a positive effect on a patient who knows very well that their treatment is without any active drug, as compared with a control group who knowingly did not get a placebo

Fast Facts About the Placebo Effect:

• The word placebo literally means “I will please” in Latin.
• The first known double-blind placebo-controlled trial was done in 1907.
• The FDA doesn’t require that a drug study include a placebo control group, however, the placebo-controlled trial has long been the standard.
• The NIH is funding several studies related to the placebo effect.

Sources: Placebo Effect, Robert Todd Carroll, The Skeptic’s Dictionary, Skepdic.com, The Mysterious Placebo Effect, by Carol Hart, American Chemical Society, Modern Drug Discovery, July/August 1999: The Healing Power of Placebos, by Tamar Nordenberg, FDA Consumer magazine

How to Use Placebo Effect

If you’re in medicine or any of the healing arts, you certainly know the placebo effect. You’ve may have even used it — treating an imagined condition with sugar pills, or a dose of Alan Greenspan-speak that the patient can’t really follow except the part where you say, “…it will be better in a few days.” And, miraculously, it is. Some might call this placebo effect a deception — and it is. Others may say it’s mind-over-matter — and it is. It’s a conundrum called the placebo paradox meaning: it’s unethical to use a placebo, but it also unethical not to use something that heals.

Since most of us are not in the healing business, the opportunity to test this paradox doesn’t often pop up. So when Jerry Weintraub show us an effective use of a placebo in business and relationships — it’s worth noting.

If you live outside of Southern California, are not in the entertainment business and don’t read movie credits, you’ve probably never heard of Jerry Weintraub. But you’ve seen movies he’s produced: Nashville, Diner, Oh God(s), The Karate Kid(s) and Oceans 11, 12 and 13 — he likes sequels. And, if you’ve ever seen Elvis, Sinatra, Led Zeppelin, The Carpenters or Neil Diamond in concert, Weintraub was there. Jerry is the guy behind the guy who sings the songs. When you deal with so many high profile artists, many of whom tip the scale towards abundant narcissism, Weintraub’s masterful use of the placebo is instructive.

In his very engaging memoir, When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man, Weintraub tells about his former client, John Denver, the singer-song writer with a pre-Beiber hairstyle. Denver was an unknown performer getting $70 a show in Greenwich Village. Weintraub signs him and turns him into a mega-watt star. One time, while Denver is on a European concert tour, word gets back that John is not happy and is threatening to fire Weintraub. The L.A. agent drops everything, flies over to Europe to find out why his star is grumpy.

“It’s the tour,” grumps Denver, “The hotel stinks, the food is no good, the venues are just awful and the sound system is terrible. I think I have to let you go.” A calm Weintraub asks for four hours to fix the problem.

Four hours later, the agent returns and announces the problem is solved, “I fired Fergusun.”

“Who’s Fergusun?” asks Denver?

“You had hotel, food, venue and sound problems? Fergusun was in charge of all of that. I fired him.”

The singer, who didn’t know Fergusun, was filed with guilt that he got the poor guy fired and right before Christmas.

Weintraub thought about it and suggested that instead of firing Fergusun, maybe he should just move him to another part of the business, away from people. “Hide him,” says the agent.

“Yeah, I feel a lot better about that,” sighs the relieved artist.

The next night Weintraub asks how the sound and the show went. “Oh much better,” says a happy Denver, “I could tell the difference right away. I’m glad we could fix it without firing Fergusun.” Of course, there was no Fergusun.