There has been much discussion in recent years about the effects of disposition, emotion, and the state of one's thinking on physical well-being. Even though these factors are still generally little understood, many physicians are taking them into serious account when treating certain illnesses.
New observations of the "placebo effect" have brought much hitherto unquestioned medical theory and practice into dispute. The use of placebos has long been accepted to some degree in the medical profession, but current research into their apparent effectiveness has sparked renewed interest. Traditionally, a placebo has been classified as any substance containing no active medical agent that is nevertheless utilized as a drug. Bread or sugar, in the form of tablets or pills and disguised as drugs, is a typical example. Placebos have produced some dramatic physical improvements.
An article in The Wall Street Journal has explored this subject and its significance for contemporary medical practice and ethics. The effect of a placebo, this article contends, is directly proportionate to the patient's belief in its efficacy: "The patient believes in it, so it works." What real healing agent is present, then, in modern drugs? The problem is set forth succinctly: "Can it be that the demonstrated effects of some famous drugs are due in large measure to placebo?" The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 1977 The impact of the patient's belief on the healing method is becoming an issue of increasing concern to the medical community.
