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technique ENERGY WORK Who wants to think about negativity? We get enough of it watching television and reading the newspaper. However, as practitioners, it's important we understand that negativity may affect a client's health. Equally vital is to know how to decrease these side effects and boost a client's optimism—the antidote to negativity. We've all heard that believing in a treatment supports a positive outcome. This statement is the sales point for the placebo effect, which has been often studied. Placebos are substances that yield beneficial outcomes, despite the absence of medicinal properties. Basically, the subject is told that the placebo will be helpful. During a study, subjects are usually given a sugar pill, a benign shot, or some other inert substance. Another group of subjects is given a medicinal product. The studies are illuminating, demonstrating that placebos (actually the mind-set that change is possible) create positive effects in conditions, such as depression, pain, sleep disorders, menopause, and irritable bowel syndrome. 1 Placebos have also been shown to dilate the bronchi, heal ulcers, and even make bald men think they can grow hair. In general, it seems the placebo effect encourages clear-cut positive shifts between 18 and 80 percent of the time; the mere suggestion of a positive outcome causing the body to produce the chemicals needed to generate change. 2 The opposite is also true, however. Through an interaction called the nocebo effect, people given a harmless substance or treatment, but informed of negative side effects, will experience unpleasant symptoms. For instance, brain imaging studies have revealed that pain is more intense in patients who expect pain than in those who don't. 3 In fact, according to a study at Oxford University, poor expectations of a treatment can override the strongest of opioids, even while positive expectations can double the biochemical effect of the opioids. 4 In yet another study, patients were told that they were given chemotherapy. Saline water was actually administered, but some subjects still vomited and lost their hair. 5 As well, The Nocebo Effect Why We Don't Like Negativity, and What to Do About It By Cyndi Dale 104 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k n o v e m b e r / d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6