the placebo effect is a beneficial effect produced by a substance which
can't be a result of the substance itself instead the effect is caused by
the patient's belief that the placebo treatment is working
so our dogs and cats can't know that a treatment is supposed to be making them
feel better so is the placebo effect in pets a real thing I undertook from
ourpetshealth.com helping you and your pet to live a healthier happier life and
welcome to the first video in my evidence matters series make sure you
subscribe to make sure that you don't miss out on future episodes so let's
start with the answer and then discuss the placebo effects in animals in more
detail quite simply there is no such thing as the placebo effect in animals
our dogs and cats can't possibly know that a particular intervention is
designed to make them feel better and so no placebo effects could be generated
does this then mean that all studies or anecdotes that show a positive result to
a given treatment should be believed and held up as proof that the treatment
works well of course not and there are two theories that can quite successfully
explain why a placebo like effect can be seen in animals so the first of these is
Caregiver placebo also known as placebo by proxy so picture the scene your pet
is unwell is in pain or has something that you're just generally worried about
you want them to get better and so you seek help now this could be from your
veterinarian but it could just as equally be from a friend an internet
forum or any other source of advice you might choose some questions are asked
an examination might be carried out some tests might be run treatment advice is
given now by this stage you'll you will have invested time emotional energy and
potentially a lot of money depending on the condition the likely expectation is
that the treatment advised will make your pet feel better and recover from
whatever condition they're suffering from because we are so invested in our
pet we really want to see them improve and likely believe that the treatment
will work and so we as the pet own are highly susceptible to care giver placebo
there is a real risk that we will see improvement even when it is not there
and it's not just owners who can suffer from this caregiver placebo as a vet i am
all too aware that my desire to see one of my patients
improve coupled with the belief that the treatment I'm prescribing will help them
makes me just as susceptible for Caregiver placebo the same goes for
anyone involved in that pets care so caregiver placebo can mean that we see
an improvement in our pets condition even when our pet is not actually
experiencing any improvement themselves don't believe this is the case well it
is clearly shown in one study where the opinion of the lameness of a patient by
owner and veterinarian was compared against how much force the dog was
actually putting through its legs and this would be an objective true
assessment of the dogs lameness in around 40% of cases the owner and vet
felt that there was an improvement even when none was present in fact the vets
were a little worse than the owners just because we believe a treatment is
helping our pet doesn't mean it actually is and it is this very effect which is
likely responsible for much of the improvement claimed by many alternative
therapies that time and again have been proven not to work any better than
placebo and better design studies another really important concept is
known as regression to the mean which I'll actually discuss in a separate
evidence matters video don't worry it's really simple concept and it's not
nearly as difficult to understand as it might sound now could the reverse be
true well absolutely if we believe that the specific intervention is going to
make no difference or it may even harm our pet then there is a perfectly
reasonable chance that we will fail to notice any improvement that might take
place even when it does take place and this Caregiver placebo is one very
important reason that treatment trials have a placebo group even when we are
evaluating the effect of a treatment in animals rather than humans it is also
one reason why anecdotal reports that has individual stories of successful or
unsuccessful outcomes are a really poor form of evidence and I'll actually
discuss all the various forms of evidence and studies in a later video as
well I'll also discuss some other reasons why the treatments that we give
our pets may appear to make them better when in fact they're not making any
difference evaluating what works and what doesn't is a vital part of the
progress of treatment of both humans and our pets without evaluating the evidence
in a proper scientific way we might still be
resorting to subjecting ourselves to regular bleeding sessions for every
ailment and we may not even be washing our hands before surgery these
ridiculous situations where normal practices not all that long ago and it
is only through proper evaluation of information available to us that we can
continue to improve our healthcare and live healthier happier lives remember I
release new videos every Tuesday and Thursday so subscribe and until next
time i'm doctor alex from our pets health because they're family