Regardless of which culprit health care professions choose to single out as their prime suspect, susceptible patients in each field quickly become habituated. The same indictment may also be applied to medicine as well as chiropractic. People have a compelling need to know what is causing their discomfort or disease. To the hypochondriac, symptoms are very real. Although objective findings are not always available to validate a given complaint, there are cases in which physical manifestations leave doctors in a quandary.
Pseudocyesis is one such phenomenon.
It is seen in women who fantasize that they are pregnant and present a visibly enlarged abdomen. Under anesthesia, however, the enlargement disappears. The placebo effect is also known in therapeutic circles. Numerous studies have reported its effectiveness under controlled circumstances. Henry K. Beecher studied the effects of placebos on patients suffering from conditions including postoperative pain, angina pectoris and the common cold.