The Placebo Effect

C

Circe

Registered Senior Member
Placebo is any medical treatment that has no specific action on the body. Sugar pills or saline solution are often used as placebos.

The placebo effect has been extensively researched in the last 50 years - the studies show that on average 35% of all people who receive a given placebo will experience a significant effect. In nine double-blind experiments (where neither the doctors nor the patients know that a placebo is being used) placebos proved to be 54% as effective as aspirine, and in six double-blind studies placebos were found to be 56% as effective as morphine in killing pain.

The federal Office of Technology Assessment estimates that more than 75% of all current medical treatments have not been subjected to sufficient scientific scrutiny, which suggests that doctors may be giving placebos and not know it.

In a 1962 experiment Drs.H.Linton and R.Langs told test subjects they were going to participate in a study of the LSD effects, but then gave them a placebo instead. Nonetheless, all subjects began to experience the classic symptoms of the actual drug and experienced a "placebo trip". Conditions that have proved responsive to placebo treatment include migraine headaches, allergies, common cold, asthma, warts, peptic ulcers, depression, arthritis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer etc.



So, is there a way to explain the placebo effect? Does it illustrate the mind over body principle and If so, what are the implications?
 
the psychological theory: it's all in your mind

Some believe the placebo effect is psychological, due to a belief in the treatment or to a subjective feeling of improvement. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, believes that the effectiveness of Prozac and similar drugs may be attributed almost entirely to the placebo effect. He and Guy Sapirstein analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness (Kirsch 1998). "The critical factor," says Kirsch, "is our beliefs about what's going to happen to us. You don't have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation." In an earlier study, Sapirstein analyzed 39 studies, done between 1974 and 1995, of depressed patients treated with drugs, psychotherapy, or a combination of both. He found that 50 percent of the drug effect is due to the placebo response.

the nature-taking-its-course theory

Some believe that at least part of the placebo effect is due to an illness or injury taking its natural course. We often heal spontaneously if we do nothing at all to treat an illness or injury. Furthermore, many disorders, pains and illnesses, wax and wane. What is measured as the placebo effect could be, in many cases, the measurement of natural regression. In short, the placebo may be given credit that is due to Nature.

process-of-treatment theory

Another theory gaining popularity is that a process of treatment that involves showing attention, care, affection, etc., to the patient/subject, a process that is encouraging and hopeful, may itself trigger physical reactions in the body which promote healing.

placebo
 
After thousands of studies, hundreds of millions of prescriptions and tens of billions of dollars in sales, two things are certain about pills that treat depression: Antidepressants like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft work. And so do sugar pills.

sugar pills

:D
 
Mind over matter...
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It does seem that way, doesn't it? The power of suggestion and positive thinking seems to work miracles sometimes and yet since we're unaware of our own powers, we have to be fooled into using them.;)
Btw, apparently it's quite easy to fool the brain - as an example I will use the phantom limb syndrome, the sensation experienced by some amputees that a missing limb is still present.

What I would like to know is, to what degree the mind is in control or rather are there any limitations at all. ;)
 
this is why the control is a placebo. this why if the drug you are testing equals the same effectiveness as the placebo thne you know that the drug is useless
 
"What I would like to know is, to what degree the mind is in control or rather are there any limitations at all"

Ah, if it were only that simple. I'm afraid this is all still very much a work in progress.
 
Originally posted by WellCookedFetus
this is why the control is a placebo. this why if the drug you are testing equals the same effectiveness as the placebo thne you know that the drug is useless
Click to expand...

this begs the question what they used as a placebo (i.e. control), when they tested the effectiveness of a placebo????
 
Good point... ? I think they compare it to no supplements at all. I was simple explaining what it is used for.
 
it also makes you wonder if any experiment with a placebo as a control actually gives viable data...


how does a placebo work? is it psychological?

well...i know an easy experiment...do the placebo experiment with mice. Mice don't know what a placebo is, hence they will not think it might work.
If a placebo still works in mice, then it is not psychological
 
The placebo is never "just nothing". Usually it is a sugar pill-- as I think someone already posted. If anything, there might be 3 groups: took the drug; took the placebo; took nothing.

Interesting point about mice, though. To my knowledge, placebos are not used in animal trials as the psychological component is assumed to be absent.
 
Originally posted by spuriousmonkey
it also makes you wonder if any experiment with a placebo as a control actually gives viable data...


how does a placebo work? is it psychological?

well...i know an easy experiment...do the placebo experiment with mice. Mice don't know what a placebo is, hence they will not think it might work.
If a placebo still works in mice, then it is not psychological
Click to expand...

then its sugar? the new miracle drug?
 
the state of a person's mind has been known to effect the immune system. If a person thinks their getting a new drug then they may have hope and their immune system will benfit. this in the long run could tell the diffrence between life and death from say cancer.
 
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