Getting stung by wasps led me to learn about all kinds of “non-traditional” treatments, including an application of the common weed, plantain. (I wish I’d tried it; one of our readers swore by it, and later I learned about its medicinal properties. Impressive.) We have plantain everywhere here on the farm, and next time I get stung I’m chewing up some leaves to release the tannins that draw out the venom and compress tissues to decrease pain and swelling.
One thing led to another, and down the rabbit hole I went, until I found this post I wrote in 2015 about placebos and dogs. I still find the issue fascinating, and would love to hear your thoughts on the issue. But first, read about the research that reminds us of the power of the environment on even our body’s internal behavior.
From 2015:
I’ve always been fascinated by placebos and I never understood why the phrase “the placebo effect” was often spoken with such disdain. Here is a standard definition (from Wikipedia): “A placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient.” Except, it’s not necessarily ineffectual, right? That’s the point, if you think about it: We know that you can be helped just by the belief that something can help you, and that factor must be eliminated when testing new medications or treatments. Yes, the placebo effect can be a confounding factor when trying to discern if a particular treatment or medication is worthwhile, but isn’t it even more remarkable that belief itself can be therapeutic?
Study after study has shown that the mind-body connection is alive and well, illustrated by this experiment which found that a placebo was more effective at alleviating symptoms of Parkinson’s when patients were told they were being given a “more expensive” drug than the previous one they had been taking.
We are starting to understand more about the mechanisms of placebos: That they can create measurable changes in brain function and physiology based either on classical conditioning and/or what’s called the “expectancy effect,” both of which might be “in your head,” but only because your brain has changed its physiology and function in real and quantifiable ways. There’s tons of information out there on the placebo effect, but here’s a review article I thought was balanced and interesting. There are also a multitude of books written about the placebo effect; I’d love to hear if any readers have read them.)
But placebos and dogs? Ha! Surely no dog leaves the vet’s office in the belief that the hard, lump thing slid down her throat is going to make her better. But a recent study from Hungary (see abstract here) found that dogs do respond to what is sometimes called “contextual healing” and the type of placebo effect based on classical conditioning (more on that soon). In summary, dogs were briefly left alone in an unfamiliar room, and at one point, a stranger entered and spent a few minutes with the dog. The dog’s behavior, especially distress-related behavior at the doorways after the owner left, was first recorded to establish a baseline. Then some dogs were given a sedative 30 minutes before entering the room, while the control group were given a vitamin. Once the sedative took effect, the same order of “owner leaves, stranger enters” occurred. This procedure was repeated a third time, but in this trial, no dogs were given a sedative, and all dogs were given the vitamin. As expected, the dogs receiving a sedative were less distressed when their owners left (at least, their distress-related behavior decreased: We should all note that those aren’t necessarily the same things, right?).
The interesting result of the study is that the dogs who were sedated with a sedative were equally quiet when given the vitamin pill the next go round. That effect doesn’t appear to be one of habituation, because the control group, the dogs given only vitamins both times, showed more distressed behavior the third time around, not less. In other words, once the dog’s brain and body had learned to associate feeling (or behaving?) more relaxed after being given a pill that calmed them, the dogs had the same response to any pill given in the same context, even though it was a simple vitamin, not a sedative. This result could be taken as evidence of classical conditioning (UCS = a sedative, CS = being given a pill) and contextual healing (“any pill works in this room in this context”).
I’ve skimmed over some of the details of the study for the sake of brevity, but here it is if you have access to it: “Conditioned placebo effect in dogs decreases separation related behaviours.” Sümegi, Gácsi, Topál, Applied Animal Behaviour Science 159 (2014), 90-98.
Of course, the question is, what does this mean for our dogs? I’m not sure that anyone has a definitive answer to this question, any more than we do in human medicine. But at least, it means that details matter. Here is a direct quote from the article itself about possible applications:
“Severe cases of separation anxiety often require the use of medications in addition to a behaviour modification programme. Once the desired effect is achieved, the dose of the medicine may be gradually reduced and finally merely the procedure can maintain the effect. However, so far the administration method of the medicine has not been considered as important. Our results suggest that applying a specific regimen, that is, administrating the medicine always with the same environmental cues, for example with the same specific food type and with a set ritual, the real medicine can later be effectively replaced by placebo.”
Interesting stuff, yes? And of course, what effect might our beliefs about a medication have on our dogs? I find it hard to imagine that, at least sometimes, in some contexts, our own expectations have an effect on our dogs too. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm in 2020: Here are Maggie and I at a friend’s farm gathering the sheep off of a steep hill. (Thanks Jim for hiking up to get the photo!)
Here’s the view from up the hill:
This is what we started with; Maggie and I had to do some hiking to get them gathered up.
Melanie our Hummer girl is still here. Right after I took this photo the male came and did a courtship flight over her. I was charmed myself, but I’m not sure if she was equally impressed. She chased him off.
Nellie and Polly continue to adore their Katris nest, and are finding ways to up the cute factor.
One last pop of color, to send you into a week that includes joy, color and love.
June morrice says
Hi a very interesting study I just love how the mind works.!! Your photos are amazing. Just add it’s amazing the plasticity off the brain to change and make new pathways I just love it.
MinnesotaMary says
Really interesting description on how placebo can be effective on dogs! I also swear by plantain for wasp stings. A co-worker chewed some up when I was stung badly at work years ago and it really did the trick! Your photos are stunning.
Deanna says
I’ve always found the placebo effect fascinating. For the patient, hey are relieved to have something work and it doesn’t matter if it’s the drug or the sugar pill. However, when treating elbow dysplasia in my heart dog, my vet videotaped my dog’s progress as one way of guarding against the human’s brain thinking the treatment was working for the dog— a concept I hadn’t considered before.
Trisha says
Deanna, very smart of your vet to video tape! Got to get those objective measures…
Tails Around the Ranch says
As always lovely images. The whole placebo thing is most fascinating.
Michelle says
I got stung by a honey bee. My fault. The only thing that took away the stinging pain was toothpaste. It was messy and sticky, but it worked. I smothered my basketball-size hand with toothpaste. It allowed me to sleep at night. (no particular brand, ha!)
Heidi Rosin says
The whole of our body and brain and the awesome mystery of it never ceases to amaze me!
Aurora says
I guess I would have wanted a third group that got the sedative the first two times and no pill at all the third time. Experiencing the stressor with a calmer body the first two times could also lead to less fear later, even without a pill, and that’s the condition I’d be most interested in testing against. It is suggestive though, and I’ll definitely be thinking more about the potential ritual aspects of Spring’s firework-meds. It makes a lot of sense that that would be important, but I hadn’t really taken it into account before.
Marty K says
Animal behavior never ceases to amaze me. What an interesting study. Now I’m curious to see what follow-up and additional studies have been undertaken in the past few years.
Thank you for all the eye candy photos today too!
Trisha says
Aurora, I’m with you for more research on this. Hard to get funding though… little monetary benefit no doubt. Just another reason we need to support scientific research on the national level.
Trisha says
Now that’s fascinating! I used to put toothpaste on zits when I was young, must have astringent qualities! (And right now I’m using bleach on poison ivy. I’m calling 2020 the SUMMER OF THE ITCH.
Gayla says
I’m wishing everyone, “two copies of a variant of a gene called tryptophan hydroxylase-2″… and the ability to think yourselves well and happy.
God, I love this blog!!
Frances says
I use a form of the placebo effect with Pippin-cat, who has had arthritis for years. He gets a daily dose of meloxicam, which makes a big difference, but the effect tends to wear off long before the next dose is due. He always gets the meloxicam in the early evening on particularly nice biscuits to ensure he takes the full dose, and after several months to establish that biscuits=feeling better I started giving him a second portion of the biscuits in the morning, and he does seem easier for it. There again he also gets a glucosamine supplement most days, and it is far from a controlled experiment – more one of those won’t-harm-may-help things that at the very least make the human partner feel that they are doing something to help, no matter how small!
Trisha says
Brilliant, Frances!
Diane P. says
One of our previous shelties received acupuncture regularly for anxiety. After about 10 months of treatment, the room she got it in (at a vet clinic) became the treatment. Once she was up on the table, her ears went down and her nose started to run, all before the needles went in. (We still gave her the needles, and then she’d go to sleep). Not exactly placebo effect…more classical conditioning…but are the two not related? An unintended but brilliant side effect was her increased comfort with all things vet related. She received her western vet care at the same clinic in the same rooms and never showed much anxiety about it after the acupuncture treatments were well established.