Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/992435
2 Differences in six-week follow-up measures for irritable bowel syndrome study participants who were (a) simply put on a waiting list, (b) received "limited" placebo treatment from a minimally interactive practitioner, or (c) received otherwise identical placebo treatment from a practitioner who "augmented" the interaction with expressions of optimism and empathy. Symptom severity and quality-of-life measures were especially improved by the quality of the interaction alone. (From Kaptchuk, 2008) Though tissue-based explanations of massage and bodywork's effects are not completely out of the picture yet (there is, for example, reasonable evidence that hands-on work can produce certain tissue effects, like viscoelastic change, improved hydration, and increased interlayer glide), 1 there is a growing consensus that, as practitioners, we can be even more effective in our work by better understanding the ways our hands-on work interacts with the brain and nervous system. ENTER THE PLACEBO Placebo research offers us a glimpse into ways we as bodyworkers might better understand the relationship between the brain and body. Placebos can produce very tangible effects, but their results come from their psychological and neurobiological influences on the brain rather than by direct physical effects on the body. It's long been known that the very act of receiving any treatment can have positive psychological effects, apart from any physical benefits of the treatment itself. That's why comparisons to "sham" placebo treatments are commonly used as controls in randomized clinical trials (RCTs). By comparing the effects of the active treatment to the placebo treatment, the specific physical effects of the agent being studied can be measured separately from all of the indirect (contextual or "nonspecific") placebo effects that come along with simply receiving a treatment. But according to placebo researchers such as Fabrizio Benedetti, professor of physiology and neuroscience at Turin University, placebo effects are commonly misunderstood, even by health-care providers (who, he says, employ them every day, whether they know it or not).