The Placebo Effect in Cardiology: Understanding and Using It.

The placebo effect is the clinical benefit caused by interaction with a caregiver and health care system in the absence of a biologically active intervention and has been used successfully for millennia. The placebo response results from the interaction of psychosocial mechanisms, human relationships, and preconceptions functioning in specific neuroanatomic locations with known genes and neurotransmitters. It occurs with or without the administration of an inactive substance to deliberately deceive patients. Our purpose is to review the history, benefits, and mechanisms of the placebo effect. The placebo response results from classic conditioning and positive expectations about outcome expressed by the caregiver. The outcomes are usually symptoms such as pain rather than biological outcomes such as death, and the powerful placebo may account for more than half the effect of treatment in many situations. The placebo effect results from activation of opioid, cannabinoid, and dopaminergic pathways involved in reward, expectancy, conditioning, and pain modulation. Eleven specific anatomic features in the brain identified by positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are involved. Polymorphisms in the structural genes for catecholamine O-methyltransferase and fatty acid amide oxidase significantly influence the placebo response. The placebo effect may be important in symptom suppression in angina, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure. In the absence of deliberate deception, there are no ethical issues and given its potency, the time has come to consider how best to use the placebo in clinical practice.