Stanford experts urge healthcare professionals to harness power of people’s mindsets

A growing body of research has shown that people’s mindsets have measurable physical results.

People’s expectations to heal and the social context surrounding them, including their relationships with doctors, drive these placebo responses – where a patient’s health changes without being treated.

Despite this research, the benefits of these psychological and social forces are still receiving much less attention than drug and device treatments in healthcare.

In a recently published report in The BMJ, titled “Making mindset matter,” a group of Stanford experts call for more healthcare professionals to place emphasis on the importance of individual mindsets and social context in healing.

The experts also urge researchers to develop more studies that measure the physical effects of these psychosocial elements in order to understand and quantify patients’ subjective experiences of expectations, connection and trust.