83 The Placebo Effect The Power of Positive Thinking

CHAPTER 1 What Is a Placebo. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEDICINE AND NO MEDICINE? SOMETIMES NOTHING AT ALL. A placebo is something that has no value by itself. In medicine, a placebo is often a pill. The pill looks identical to medicine, but it has no real medicine in it. In the past, these pills were sometimes made of sugar. That gave placebos the name "sugar pills." Scientists often use placebos for medical studies. Imagine a new medicine has been invented. The scientists want to know how well it works, so they carry out a study. They collect a group of people and give some of the people the new medicine. The others get a placebo. The placebo looks just like the actual medicine. The people do not know if they have gotten the real medicine or the placebo. Then, the scientists compare the two groups to see if the medicine has had any effect. Because placebos are not medicine, they do not actually do anything. However, that does not mean placebos have no effect, as the story of Henry Beecher shows:

第一章什么是安慰剂 吃药和不吃药有什么区别？ 有时什么都没有。安慰剂本身是没有价值的。 在医学上，安慰剂通常是一种药丸。 这种药丸看起来和药一样，但里面并没有真正的药。 在过去，这些药片有时是用糖做的。 这使得安慰剂被称为“糖丸”。 科学家经常在医学研究中使用安慰剂。 想象一种新药被发明出来。 科学家们想知道它是如何起作用的，所以他们进行了一项研究。 他们召集了一群人，给其中一些人新药。 另一组则服用安慰剂。安慰剂看起来就像真正的药物。 人们不知道他们服用的是真正的药物还是安慰剂。 然后，科学家比较两组，看看药物是否有任何效果。 因为安慰剂不是药物，它们实际上没有任何作用。 然而，这并不意味着安慰剂没有效果，正如亨利·比彻的故事所示：

Henry Beecher was an American doctor in World War II. One day, a soldier was brought to him. The soldier had been in a battle and was hurt very badly. He needed an operation. However, Dr. Beecher had no more morphine. Morphine is a very powerful drug. It takes away a person's ability to feel pain. Dr. Beecher did not know what to do. He was worried that without morphine, the patient would die during the operation. Finally, a nurse tried something very strange. She injected the soldier with a mix of salt and water. This mix, called a saline solution, does nothing. It is a placebo. However, the nurse told the soldier she was giving him morphine. Immediately, the soldier relaxed and said he felt very little pain. The doctor was able to operate. Dr. Beecher had just seen the "placebo effect."

亨利·比彻是第二次世界大战期间的一名美国医生。 一天，一个士兵被带到他面前。 这个士兵参加过一场战斗，伤得很重。 他需要做手术。然而,博士。 比彻没有吗啡了。 吗啡是一种非常强效的药物。 它会夺走一个人感知疼痛的能力。 比彻医生不知道该怎么办。 他担心如果没有吗啡，病人会在手术中死亡。 最后，一个护士尝试了一件很奇怪的事。 她给士兵注射了盐和水的混合物。 这种混合物被称为盐水溶液，没有任何作用。 这是一种安慰剂。然而，护士告诉士兵她正在给他注射吗啡。 士兵立刻放松下来，说他几乎不感到疼痛。 医生能做手术。 比彻博士刚刚看到了“安慰剂效应”。

CHAPTER 2 The Power of Suggestion DO WE BELIEVE THINGS JUST BECAUSE OTHERS TELL US THEY ARE TRUE? MAYBE MORE THAN YOU THINK. The placebo effect has interested scientists and doctors for a very long time. It happens when a patient is Given a placebo but still experiences a noticeable positive change. The change can happen in many different ways, but each time it is because the patient believes the placebo is really medicine. The World War II soldier experienced less pain because he thought the placebo was morphine. Placebos can also help nervous patients to relax. If a patient suffers from allergies, a placebo can stop the effects of the allergy. The placebo effect depends on the doctor's suggestion. In one study, a doctor told patients that a certain medicine would make their heart beat faster. It did. Then, the same doctor told other patients a medicine would make their heart beat slower.

第二章暗示的力量我们相信别人告诉我们的事情是真的吗？ 也许比你想象的要多。 长期以来，科学家和医生一直对安慰剂效应感兴趣。 当患者服用了安慰剂，但仍然经历了明显的积极变化时，就会发生这种情况。 这种变化可以通过许多不同的方式发生，但每次都是因为患者相信安慰剂是真正的药物。 第二次世界大战的士兵感受到的疼痛较少，因为他认为安慰剂是吗啡。 安慰剂也可以帮助紧张的病人放松。 如果病人患有过敏症，安慰剂可以阻止过敏的影响。 安慰剂效应取决于医生的建议。 在一项研究中，一位医生告诉病人，某种药物会使他们的心跳加快。 它做到了。然后，同一位医生告诉其他病人一种药物会使他们的心跳减慢。

It was also successful. In both cases, the medicine was the same placebo. The different effects were because of the effect the doctor's suggestions had on the patients' minds. The power of suggestion works in many different ways. Sometimes the suggestion does not even need to be spoken. If, like Dr. Beecher, a doctor gives a patient a placebo instead of morphine, it is better to inject it than give it in a pill. The injected placebo is more effective. This is because an injection suggests stronger medicine is being used. Even a doctor's clothes have the power of suggestion. A 2005 study showed 76% of people trusted a new doctor more when he or she wore a traditional white lab coat. The lab coat suggests that the doctor has studied medicine and has experience with different illnesses.

它也很成功。在这两种情况下，药物都是相同的安慰剂。 不同的效果是由于医生的建议对病人思想的影响。 暗示的力量以许多不同的方式起作用。 有时候，建议甚至不需要说出来。 如果像比彻博士那样，医生给病人开的是安慰剂而不是吗啡，那么最好是注射，而不是用药片给药。 注射安慰剂更有效。 这是因为注射表明正在使用更强的药物。 即使是医生的衣服也有暗示的力量。 2005年的一项研究显示，76%的人更信任穿着传统白大褂的新医生。 白大褂表明这位医生学过医学，有治疗不同疾病的经验。

There have also been studies that show a doctor's white coat may have a negative effect. Although most people relax when speaking to a doctor, some become very nervous. This makes their blood pressure rise. The doctor sees the high blood pressure and decides the person has a real health problem. This may lead to medicine for a problem that does not exist outside the doctor's office. This is known as the "white coat effect." Interestingly, a final study on the doctor's white coat shows it even has a positive effect on the doctors themselves. A group of students was given a number of questions. Half the students were dressed normally, but the other half were given white lab coats to wear over their clothes. The group with the lab coats did much better on the test than the other group.

也有研究表明，医生的白大褂可能会产生负面影响。 虽然大多数人在与医生交谈时都很放松，但有些人会变得非常紧张。 这会使他们的血压升高。 医生看到高血压，决定这个人有真正的健康问题。 这可能会导致对医生办公室之外不存在的问题进行药物治疗。 这就是所谓的“白大褂效应”。 有趣的是，一项关于医生白大褂的最终研究表明，它甚至对医生本身也有积极的影响。 一组学生被要求回答一些问题。 一半的学生穿着正常，而另一半则穿着白色的实验大褂。 穿白大褂的那一组在测试中比另一组做得好得多。

The researchers believe the white coats made the students feel more confident. These three studies about the white coat effect show just how powerful the power of suggestion truly is. The power of suggestion is often used in advertising. Businesses work hard to suggest their product is better than others. A 2007 study showed how successful this can sometimes be. In it, researchers bought food from a popular American fast food restaurant. All of the food was wrapped in paper that showed the name of the restaurant. The researchers took off the restaurant's paper from half of the food and replaced it with plain paper. When they gave both sets of food to a group of children, the children said that the food wrapped in the restaurant's paper tasted better than the identical food in plain paper.

研究人员认为，白大褂让学生们感觉更自信。 这三项关于“白大褂效应”的研究表明，暗示的力量是多么强大。 暗示的力量常用于广告中。 企业努力宣传自己的产品比别人的好。 2007年的一项研究表明，这有时是多么成功。 在实验中，研究人员从一家受欢迎的美国快餐店购买食物。 所有的食物都用纸包着，上面写着餐馆的名字。 研究人员从一半的食物上取下餐馆的纸，用普通纸代替。 当他们把这两种食物都给一群孩子吃时，孩子们说用餐馆包装纸包装的食物比用普通包装纸包装的食物味道更好。