The placebo effects of different medications and treatments have been well documented for a number of years.  The goal of this study was to take a good look at whether or not placebo-induced chest pain could be improved by the power of suggestion, and whether or not there would be a change in the diameters of the coronary arteries.

30 participants were selected for the study which was carried out by researchers Dr Karin Meissner and Dr Joram Ronel of the Technical University Munich in Germany.  First, each of the 30 participants suffering from chest pain were checked for heart disease and were found to not have this condition.  Once they were told that they did not have the disease, the participants were then told of a drug they would be given which would reduce their pain.

The drug was, in fact, only saline which is harmless to one’s health but also shown to have no medical benefit to chest pain patients.  It was found, however, that telling these patient that there would be a reduction in their chest pain symptoms gave them not only pain relief, but also caused an objective change in their blood vessels.  This reaction was the opposite of what they expected to see happen.

“The major finding was that the coronary vessels reacted so clearly to a mere psychological intervention,” Drs Meissner and Ronal stated by email. 

What the patients were told about the “drug” was that it would widen their arteries which would give them a “boost of blood” and relieve the chest pain.  In actuality, the blood vessels actually constricted for most participants in the group.  Constriction is exactly what is supposed to happen, however, so Meissner and Ronel were not surprised.  Healthy people, when under stress, have a widening of the blood vessels so that the need for blood circulation meets the body’s need for blood.  When the stress begins to dissipate, the vessels then shrink in diameter and become narrow once again.

“When the heart works less, there is less need for blood supply and the vessels will be less dilated than in a stressful situation,” Meissner and Ronel said.  “This is how we interpret our data.”

In order to examine whether or not the saline solution would have a physical effect on the heart arteries, the team looked at the 30 participants who had a coronary angiography to evaluate their chest pain situations.  During this angiography, a thin catheter tub was threaded through a blood vessel in the heart.  A special dye was then injected, which allowed doctors to use x-rays to look for any blockages in the heart arteries.  While they were still on the examination table, they were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: a “verbal suggestion” group, or a “control” group.

Both groups of participants received the saline injection into the catheter.  Those participants who were in the verbal suggestion group were told that the drug would widen the heart arteries, while the participants in the control group were told absolutely nothing.  The study then found that, on average, the verbal suggestion said that they had a reduction in their chest pain after the procedure, and that there was a notable narrowing in the blood vessels.  Those in the control group, however, said that they actually felt slightly more pain and that there was more vessel dilation.

The researchers stated that they suspected the pain reduction was an indirect effect of the verbal suggestion, but that there are some obvious and notable physical changes to the vessels which could have contributed to the reduction in pain, all thanks to the power of suggestion.