Background

In medical education, the teaching of the concept of "placebo response" prevails without recognizing that the clinical responses that occur are due to the patient´s meanings and that they cannot be produced by inert substances.

Objective

Explore the learning, opinions, and meanings about the concept of "response to meaning" and its contrast with the idea of response to placebo among the participating residents.

Materials and methods

A qualitative study was carried out with design and analysis in accordance with the grounded theory. Three family medicine residents red and discussed in a Balint group an article that criticizes the concept of response to placebo and that proposes the concept of response to meaning. The group discussions carried out were recorded, transcribed, and coded with the grounded theory method.

Results

The residents could describe the concept of response to meaning and described their version of its components based on their experiences with patients.

Conclusions

The response to meaning is generated by empathic attention, focusing on the person, appropriate communication and generating trust; it is influenced by culture and its character is changing. The meaning is powerful for doctor and patient, training is required in this regard, the doctor must accept that patients respond clinically to the meanings of the doctor-patient relationship and that this should be as horizontal as possible.

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