TED演讲：心理暗示的作用，有些话会影响人一辈子！

今天的演讲是关于一种心理学效应——安慰剂效应，指病人虽然获得无效的治疗，但却“预料”或“相信”治疗有效，而让病患症状得到舒缓的现象。又名伪药效应、假药效应、代设剂效应（英文：Placebo Effect，源自拉丁文placebo解“我将安慰”）安慰剂效应于1955年由毕阙博士提出，亦理解为“非特定效应”（non-specific effects）或受试者期望效应。有人认为这是一个值得注意地人类生理反应，但亦有人认为这是医学实验设计所产生的错觉。这个现象无论是否真的存在，科学家至今仍未能完全理解。

演讲者：Emma Bryce

演讲题目：The power of the placebo effect

TED视频TED演讲稿

In 1996, 56 volunteers took part in a study to test a new painkiller called Trivaricaine. On each subject, one index finger was covered in the new painkiller while the other remained untouched. Then, both were squeezed in painful clamps. The subjects reported that the treated finger hurt less than the untreated one.1996年，56名志愿者参加了一项研究，测试一种名为三静脉曲张卡因的新型止痛药。在每一个受试者的一个食指涂上这种新型止痛药，而另一个食指则保持原样。然后，两个食指都用钳子使劲夹住。受试者报告说，那个涂了药的食指没有另一只疼。 This shouldn't be surprising, except Trivaricaine wasn't actually a painkiller, just a fake concotion with no pain-easing properties at all. What made the students so sure this dummy drug had worked? The answer lies in the placebo effect, an unexplained phenomenon wherein drugs, treatments, and therapies that aren't supposed to have an effect, and are often fake, miraculously make people feel better.这一点也不奇怪，只是三静脉曲张实际上并不是止痛药，它只是一种没有任何止痛作用的假的混合物。是什么让学生们如此确信这种假药有效？答案在于安慰剂效应，这是一种无法解释的现象，在这种现象中，药物、治疗和治疗不应该有效果，而且常常它们是假的，奇迹般地让人们感觉更好。 Doctors have used the term placebo since the 1700s when they realized the power of fake drugs to improve people's symptoms. These were administered when proper drugs weren't available, or if someone imagined they were ill. In fact, the word placebo means "I shall please" in Latin, hinting at a history of placating troubled patients.自从17世纪医生们意识到假药对改善人们症状的作用后，他们就开始使用安慰剂这个术语。如果没有合适的药物，或者有人认为他们病了，这些药物就会被使用。事实上，安慰剂这个词在拉丁语中的意思是“我会好起来的”，它暗示着安抚受病痛折磨的病人已有一段历史。 Placebos had to mimic the real treatments in order to be convincing, so they took the form of sugar pills, water-filled injections, and even sham surgeries. Soon, doctors realized that duping people in this way had another use: in clinical trials. By the 1950s, researchers were using placebos as a standard tool to test new treatments.安慰剂必须模仿真实的治疗方法才能让人信服，所以他们采取了糖丸、注水注射，甚至假手术的形式。很快，医生们意识到用这种方法欺骗人还有另一个用途：用于临床试验。到了20世纪50年代，研究人员将安慰剂作为测试新疗法的标准工具。 To evaluate a new drug, for instance, half the patients in a trial might receive the real pill. The other half would get a placebo that looked the same. Since patients wouldn't know whether they'd received the real thing or a dud, the results wouldn't be biased, researchers believed.例如，为了评估一种新药，试验中一半的病人可能会服用真正的避孕药。另一半人会得到一个看起来一样的安慰剂。研究人员认为，由于患者不知道他们是否收到了真品或哑弹，因此结果是准确的。 Then, if the new drug showed a significant benefit compared to the placebo, it was proved effective. Nowadays, it's less common to use placebos this way because of ethical concerns. If it's possible to compare a new drug against an older version, or another existing drug, that's preferable to simply giving someone no treatment at all, especially if they have a serious ailment.然后，如果与安慰剂相比，新药显示出显著的益处，那么它被证明是有效的。如今，出于道德考虑，这种使用安慰剂的方式并不常见。如果有可能将一种新药与一种旧的或另一种现有的药物进行比较，就比完全不给病人提供治疗要好，尤其是病人患有十分严重的疾病时。 In these cases, placebos are often used as a control to fine-tune the trial so that the effects of the new versus the old or alternative drug can be precisely compared. But of course, we know the placebos exert their own influence, too.在这些情况下，安慰剂通常被用作对照品来微调试验，以便能够精确比较新药物与旧药物或替代药物的效果。当然，我们也知道安慰剂有它自己的影响。 Thanks to the placebo effect, patients have experienced relief from a range of ailments, including heart problems, asthma, and severe pain, even though all they'd received was a fake drug or sham surgery. We're still trying to understand how.由于安慰剂的作用，病人从一系列疾病中得到了缓解，包括心脏病、哮喘和剧痛，尽管他们只接受了假药或假手术。我们仍在尝试去理解其背后的原因。 Some believe that instead of being real, the placebo effect is merely confused with other factors, like patients trying to please doctors by falsely reporting improvements. On the other hand, researchers think that if a person believes a fake treatment is real, their expectations of recovery actually do trigger physiological factors that improve their symptoms.一些人认为，安慰剂效应并不是真实存在的，只是与其他因素混淆了，比如病人试图通过谎报病情改善来取悦医生。另一方面，研究人员认为，如果一个人相信假治疗的可行性，那么他们对康复的期望实际上会触发生理因素，从而改善他们的症状。 Placebos seem to be capable of causing measurable change in blood pressure, heart rate, and the release of pain-reducing chemicals, like endorphins. That explains why subjects in pain studies often say placebos ease their discomfort. Placebos may even reduce levels of stress hormones, like adrenaline, which can slow the harmful effects of an ailment.安慰剂看起来是可以对血压、心率以及减轻痛觉的化学物质的释放有显著作用的，就像安多芬。这就解释了为什么疼痛研究的受试者经常说安慰剂可以缓解他们的不适。安慰剂甚至可以降低压力荷尔蒙的水平，如肾上腺素，它可以减缓疾病的不良反应。 So shouldn't we celebrate the placebo's bizarre benefits? Not necessarily. If somebody believes a fake treatment has cured them, they may miss out on drugs or therapies that are proven to work. Plus, the positive effects may fade over time, and often do.所以我们应不应该庆幸安慰剂的神奇功效呢？不一定。如果有人相信假治疗已经治愈了他们，他们可能会忽略真正被证明有效的药物和治疗。另外，随着时间的推移，积极的影响可能会逐渐消失，而且这是普遍现象。 Placebos also cloud clinical results, making scientists even more motivated to discover how they wield such power over us. Despite everything we know about the human body, there are still some strange and enduring mysteries, like the placebo effect.安慰剂也给临床结果蒙上了一层阴影，使得科学家们更有动力研究安慰剂是如何产生如此巨大影响的。尽管我们对人体了解很多，但仍然存在很多奇怪的未解之谜，比如安慰剂效应。 So what other undiscovered marvels might we contain? It's easy to investigate the world around us and forget that one of its most fascinating subjects lies right behind our eyes.那么，我们还能包含哪些未被发现的奇迹呢？探索这个世界很容易，人们也很容易遗忘，这个世界上最迷人的事物，就是我们自己。

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