A common decongestant may not be as effective as you think, but your mind can still play a powerful role in easing cold symptoms.
The Power of Expectation: How Our Beliefs Can Heal
A common decongestant doesn’t work any better than a placebo, but that might be good enough.
The viruses of cold and flu season are upon us, and in us, where they’re causing misery upon misery. But don’t worry. You can hop online, and for a mere $24.95, buy yourself a bottle of Zeebo Relief pills, designed to ease your bothersome symptoms. The key ingredient? Absolutely nothing. They’re placebos, and as such, they contain no active ingredients, not even sugar. The tagline: “You are the active ingredient.”
Maybe you’re rolling your eyes. Is there any reason to think that pills of nothing could work? Yes, it turns out. And in fact, many of us may have a similar placebo, of sorts, sitting in our medicine cabinets. It’s phenylephrine, and it’s been on the market for decades. This decongestant is in over-the-counter cold medications sold by brands such as Sudafed PE and DayQuil.
In 2023, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration combed through data on whether the drug, taken by mouth, worked and concluded it unstuffed people’s noses no better than a placebo. Now the FDA is considering whether to pull this particular decongestant from store shelves. The scrutiny involves only the pill form of the drug; the nasal spray form, along with other types of decongestants, have no such baggage.
Before you cull your medicine cabinet, the issue raises some intrigue. In particular, the phrase “no better than a placebo.” It’s not necessarily that phenylephrine doesn’t make you feel better; it’s that the placebo does, too. This phenomenon is often referred to as the “power of expectation.”
Research has shown that our brains play a significant role in how we perceive and respond to medications. A 2016 study found that people who took phenylephrine hydrochloride modified-release tablets for nasal congestion experienced no improvement in symptoms compared to those who took a placebo. However, this doesn’t mean that the medication is ineffective; rather, it highlights the importance of our expectations and beliefs in shaping our experience of treatment.
Neuroscientists have made significant progress in understanding how the brain creates expectations and beliefs. By studying the neural mechanisms underlying the placebo effect, researchers hope to develop more effective treatments for a range of conditions, from pain management to mental health disorders.
In fact, research has shown that even when we know we’re taking a placebo, our brains can still respond with significant relief. A 2014 study found that a child’s cough responded equally well to colored, flavored water and agave nectar, and both “treatments” beat nothing. This highlights the importance of being mindful of our expectations and beliefs, even in seemingly trivial situations.
As you consider phenylephrine’s role in your life, take a moment to consider that your mind might be a powerful ally in your fight against your cold, even if it knows full well what you’re trying to slip past it. By recognizing the power of expectation, we can harness its potential to improve our health and well-being.
- sciencenews.org | Got a cold? A placebo might help
