Could it be that it is the relationship between the doctor and patient that does the healing rather than the drugs, surgeries, and technologies they rely on? You betcha! A study published in the January 2013 issue of Molecular Psychiatry showed that the same locations in the brain that light up when patients receive placebo therapies are similarly activated in the brains of MDs when they administer what they think are effective treatments.
Behavioral research suggests MD expectations have a profound effect on patients' clinical outcomes and have a strong basis in placebo. In this study researchers studied the fMRIs of MDs while they were giving treatment to patients that they believed would work.
