Re: Belief and the Brain

Can "positive thinking" or "placebo effect" still be a benefit to
somebody who is trying to evaluate it in an objective context? That
is... can I 'choose to believe' something as opposed to 'really
believing' it and still enjoy the positive consequences of the
believer? This may completely derail the direction you might have
intended, Dr. Syme, and I apologize if it does - perhaps I should make
my own subject thread. But the research you discuss below seems to me
to touch on a rumbling undercurrent of modern thought.

Many may wish not to tread here - but I'll raise a question that is
openly voiced by critical non-Christians, and may lurk more deeply in
the minds of some believers. Is the 'placebo effect' a hostile
explanation that discredits the testimony of Christian experience,
undermining the convictions of would-be followers? As discrediting as
this would seem, this kind of thinking may be seeping into the periphery
of Christian consciousness especially in northern liberal thought. It
is a kind of Pascal's wager resurrected, dusted off, and modernized --
"I'll choose to go along with the Christian creeds, because, after all,
they are pretty good things to live by and what is the harm done if it
all turns out to be bogus? The social affirmation & support, etc. of
positive group dynamics and many other perks of various group
memberships all make a pretty attractive package for this life, and
frosting on the cake if eternal life does happen to be thrown into the
bargain -- but no big deal if it isn't" or so such politely unspoken
liberal thought probably runs underneath public consciousness.

The problem with such thinking (and with Pascal's original wager as
well) is that it runs so contrary to the original apostle's world view.
That one could just casually take up this creed because they have
nothing to lose would, I think, astonish Paul whose thoughts were more
along the lines of "...if only for this life do we hope then we are to
be pitied above all men...". Or the other early disciples and later
martyrs who suffered terribly and gave up nearly everything of this
world for the sake of the next. But those heady sacrifices are foreign
to so much of what institutional Christian thought has become ever since
Constantine. We casually toss about wagers and cost-benefit analyses.

Research may demonstrate great benefits from placebo effects, but to
realize those, I guess I would have to really believe in the cure. So
the objective scholar trying to stand outside and look in is in some
way precluded from enjoying the fruits of his own labors is he not? If
he concludes that those (positive thinking) fruits are wholesome, can he
take up 'belief' in a true enough sense to help himself? And if even if
he succeeds, his own ground of "belief" must be substantially different
than Paul's who essentially tells us that if this gospel isn't true,
then we are false witnesses and the whole thing is a pathetic detestable
lie. That is an ultimatum from someone more interested in truth than in
pragmatism, utility, or the desirability of belief for personal health
and advancement.

Meanwhile, then, what is the status of those who cry out with the
desperate father "Lord, I believe! Help, thou my unbelief"?

--merv

drsyme@cablespeed.com wrote:

> Recently we had a discussion here about alternative medicine, and we
> talked a little about the placebo effect.
>
> Today I ran across an article reviewing some research on the placebo
> effect, I will summarize it below. The gist of these studies is that
> positive expectations, and a belief that something will work actually
> makes it work, and causes measurable changes in brain chemistry.
>
> It has been documented in prior research that the placebo effect is
> probably mediated by endogenous opiates, because this effect is
> blocked by naloxone, which is an opiod antagonist.
>
> So a recent study decided to study the endogenous opiate system
> placebo effect by using PET scans.
>
> In this study published in September in the Journal of Neuroscience
> researchers using PET scans were able to document a link between
> anticipation of treatment and activity of the mu-opiod receptors that
> correlated with a placebo effect. In this study volunteers were
> subjected to muscle pain by injection of hypertonic saline. The
> subjects had been told that the study was to measure the effects of a
> new pain medication, and were told that they would get either the
> medication or placebo. In fact all subjects received placebo. Some
> subjects thought that they received the medication and in these
> subjects, there was increased activity in mu-opiod receptor activity
> mainly in pre-frontal cortex areas. This increased activity was
> associated with lower pain ratings.
>
> Other neurotransmitters are also affected by the placebo effect.
> Previous research has shown increased dopamine levels in patients with
> Parkinsons Disease that were given a placebo. In fact the dopamine
> levels in patients given a placebo injection were comparable to levels
> in patients given an active drug. Similarly a study published in
> 2004 compared Parkinsons patients that had embryonic stem cell
> implants to patients that had sham surgery, and those that had the
> actual implants overall were doing no better than those that had the
> actual implants. However, those patients that thought they had the
> actual surgery had better quality of life and actual health regardless
> of what treatment they received.
>
> Also from 2004 a study on the effects of an antidepressant were
> measured. Prior to the study the patients were asked what they
> expected from the drug, and were told to choose from three
> alternatives that summed up their expectation of the effect of the
> medicine: "not at all effectve", "somewhat effective" or "very
> effective." All patients were given the medication, but those whose
> anticipation was "very effective" had a 90% positive response compared
> to 30% of those that expected a less effective response.
>
>
Received on Thu Jan 12 22:14:33 2006