tagged w/ placebo
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NiceN
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1 year ago
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People with breathing problems that disrupt their sleep were less tired after three weeks of treatment with a breathing device compared to those treated with a placebo, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/reuters/Health/74732People with breathing problems that disrupt their sleep were less tired after three... more
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usman6
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1 year ago
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In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence that fake treatments, or placebos, have an actual biological effect in the body.
The doctor-patient relationship, plus the expectation of recovery, may sometimes be enough to change a patient’s brain, body and behavior, experts write. The review of previous research on placebos was published online Friday in Lancet, the British medical journal.
“It’s not that placebos or inert substances help,” said Linda Blair, a Bath-based psychologist and spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society. Blair was not linked to the research. “It’s that people’s belief in inert substances help.”
Read the full article at http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/02/19/placebos-is-mind-more-important-than-matter/In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence... more
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Merck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals in sales. Even worse, patents on five blockbuster drugs were about to expire, which would allow cheaper generics to flood the market. The company hadn't introduced a truly new product in three years, and its stock price was plummeting.
In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck's research director, laid out his battle plan to restore the firm to preeminence. Key to his strategy was expanding the company's reach into the antidepressant market, where Merck had lagged while competitors like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. "To remain dominant in the future," he told Forbes, "we need to dominate the central nervous system."
His plan hinged on the success of an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869. Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive's dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects, and Merck touted its game-changing potential at a meeting of 300 securities analysts.
Behind the scenes, however, MK-869 was starting to unravel. True, many test subjects treated with the medication felt their hopelessness and anxiety lift. But so did nearly the same number who took a placebo, a look-alike pill made of milk sugar or another inert substance given to groups of volunteers in clinical trials to gauge how much more effective the real drug is by comparison. The fact that taking a faux drug can powerfully improve some people's health—the so-called placebo effect—has long been considered an embarrassment to the serious practice of pharmacology.
Ultimately, Merck's foray into the antidepressant market failed. In subsequent tests, MK-869 turned out to be no more effective than a placebo. In the jargon of the industry, the trials crossed the futility boundary.
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Much much more at the link
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effectMerck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals... more
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Four-year-old Billy Tipton’s best friend — an imaginary owl named Scabooboo – ovedosed on an entire make-believe bottle of placebos last night. [more]
-- www.TheSkunk.orgFour-year-old Billy Tipton’s best friend — an imaginary owl named... more
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Placebo have been forced to cancel their entire forthcoming North American tour after singer Brian Molko came down with a virus while on tour in Asia. The U.S. jaunt was set to kick off September 12 in Portland.Placebo have been forced to cancel their entire forthcoming North American tour after... more
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There was a time when America loved its staple crops. We once stood proud among the amber waves of grain. Now we're running from them.There was a time when America loved its staple crops. We once stood proud among the... more
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When I wrote about the placebo effect a couple of months ago, scientists didn't have any real understanding of why placebo works for some people but not others. Some patients can think themselves out of pain (the best-known placebo effect), but others cannot.When I wrote about the placebo effect a couple of months ago, scientists didn't... more
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Placebo have announced dates for a forthcoming North American tour. The extensive jaunt is set to kick off September 12 in Portland and will run through several major cities including Seattle, Austin, Toronto, and New York.Placebo have announced dates for a forthcoming North American tour. The extensive... more
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The Kings of Leon have been confirmed as headliners for Poland's forthcoming Open'er festival. The festival, which will for the first time take place over four days from July 2-5, will also see performances by Placebo, Moby, Duffy, and The Kooks.The Kings of Leon have been confirmed as headliners for Poland's forthcoming... more
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"What is the placebo effect and how does it work?
The term “placebo effect” is unfortunate; it leads to misunderstandings. Placebos themselves don’t have any effect. They are inert: that’s what placebo means. The word placebo comes from the Latin for “I please.” You can think of it as the opposite of “I benefit.” What we really mean by “the placebo effect” is not some mysterious effect from giving an inert treatment, but the complex web of psychosocial effects surrounding medical treatment. Those effects occur with effective treatments too, not just with inert treatments.
Mark Crislip, MD, thinks the placebo effect is a myth. “I think that the placebo effect with pain is a mild example of cognitive behavioral therapy; the pain stays the same, it is the emotional response that is altered … Ain’t no such thing as a placebo effect, only a change in perception.”1 He’s correct in saying that the placebo effect does nothing to change the pain signals in the nerves. But most people think the change in perception is the placebo effect and is worth pursuing.
In a study of pain after dental surgery, patients were given either intravenous morphine or a saline placebo. If they were told that the saline was a powerful new painkiller, they got just as much relief as the patients who received morphine. In another study, all patients were given morphine for post-op pain, but only half were told they were getting it. The patients who didn’t know they were getting it only experienced half as much pain relief. In a study of acupuncture for post-op dental pain, there was no difference between the “real” acupuncture and placebo “sham” acupuncture groups, but when they asked patients which group they thought they were in, they discovered that those who believed they were in the “real” group reported significantly more pain relief than those who believed they were in the “sham” group — regardless of which group they were actually in!
We not only know placebos “work,” we know there is a hierarchy of effectiveness:
* Placebo surgery works better than placebo injections
* Placebo injections work better than placebo pills
* Sham acupuncture treatment works better than a placebo pill
* Capsules work better than tablets
* Big pills work better than small
* The more doses a day, the better
* The more expensive, the better
* The color of the pill makes a difference
* Telling the patient, “This will relieve your pain” works better than saying “This might help.”
Effective treatments have placebo effects too. A substantial percentage of the effects from antidepressants may be placebo effects. Morphine works even better if your doctor tells you it’s strong.
We can’t isolate placebo effect from conventional medicine — it gets us thinking the wrong way. As the neurologist Robert Burton says, “Even given our advanced state of medical knowledge, much of routine medical care — from treating backaches to the common cold — relies primarily upon reassurance and hope, not disease- specific treatments … we need to reconsider how to facilitate the placebo effect with minimal risk and cost, and without deception.”
More at link, very interesting!
More at link, very interesting!"What is the placebo effect and how does it work?
The term “placebo... more
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"The idea that believing you are ill can make you ill may seem far-fetched, yet rigorous trials have established beyond doubt that the converse is true - that the power of suggestion can improve health. This is the well-known placebo effect. Placebos cannot produce miracles, but they do produce measurable physical effects.
The placebo effect has an evil twin: the nocebo effect, in which dummy pills and negative expectations can produce harmful effects. The term "nocebo", which means "I will harm", was not coined until the 1960s, and the phenomenon has been far less studied than the placebo effect. It's not easy, after all, to get ethical approval for studies designed to make people feel worse.
What we do know suggests the impact of nocebo is far-reaching. "Voodoo death, if it exists, may represent an extreme form of the nocebo phenomenon," says anthropologist Robert Hahn of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, who has studied the nocebo effect.
Nocebo effects are also seen in normal medical practice. Around 60 per cent of patients undergoing chemotherapy start feeling sick before their treatment. "It can happen days before, or on the journey on the way in," says clinical psychologist Guy Montgomery from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Sometimes the mere thought of treatment or the doctor's voice is enough to make patients feel unwell. This "anticipatory nausea" may be partly due to conditioning - when patients subconsciously link some part of their experience with nausea - and partly due to expectation.""The idea that believing you are ill can make you ill may seem far-fetched, yet... more
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Don't try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away.
This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it's not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared.Don't try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in... more
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"The practice of medicine contains countless examples of elegant medical theories that belie the best available evidence.
* Recent press reports detailing the dangers of cough syrup for children have noted that cough syrup doesn’t work. True: No cough remedies have ever been proven better than a placebo, either for adults or children. Yet their use is common.
* Patients with ear infections are more likely to be harmed by antibiotics than helped. While the pills may cause a small decrease in symptoms (for which ear drops work better), the infections typically recede within days regardless of treatment. The same is true for bronchitis, sinusitis, and sore throats. Unnecessary antibiotics are still given to more than one in seven Americans each year for these conditions alone, at a cost of more than $2 billion and tens of thousands of serious adverse medication effects requiring treatment.
* Back surgeries to relieve pain are, in the majority of cases, no better than nonsurgical treatment. Yet doctors perform 600,000 of these surgeries each year, at a cost of over $20 billion.
* More than a half million Americans per year undergo arthroscopic surgery to correct osteoarthritis of the knee, at a cost of $3 billion. Despite this, studies show the surgery to be no better than sham knee surgery, in which surgeons “pretend” to do surgery while the patient is under light anesthesia. It is also no better than much cheaper, and much less invasive, physical therapy."
There is much more at the link, really very interesting!"The practice of medicine contains countless examples of elegant medical theories... more
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" * In recent decades reports have confirmed the efficacy of various sham treatments in nearly all areas of medicine. Placebos have helped alleviate pain, depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory disorders and even cancer.
* Placebo effects can arise not only from a conscious belief in a drug but also from subconscious associations between recovery and the experience of being treated—from the pinch of a shot to a doctor’s white coat. Such subliminal conditioning can control bodily processes of which we are unaware, such as immune responses and the release of hormones.
* Researchers have decoded some of the biology of placebo responses, demonstrating that they stem from active processes in the brain.
The placebo effect is probably as old as the healing professions themselves. In the 18th century physicians deliberately used inert pills when they had no suitable drug in their armamentarium. They spoke of supporting the healing process. After the middle of the 19th century medical scientists began viewing disease in purely physical and chemical terms. And by 1900 placebos had lost much of their previous popularity as therapy.
Indeed, modern medical investigators have often regarded the placebo response as a nuisance. But a cadre of psychologists, biologists, and other behavioral and social scientists instead view placebos as a key to understanding how the brain can control bodily processes to promote healing.
In the classic placebo effect, a person consciously believes that a substance is therapeutic, and this faith has a physiological consequence that dampens the pain or ameliorates other symptoms. Inversely, in the so-called nocebo effect, a negative attitude or expectation leads to harm or another undesirable outcome."" * In recent decades reports have confirmed the efficacy of various sham... more
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Doctors in the US are not playing ethically when they prescribe placebos instead of Vitamins to their patientsDoctors in the US are not playing ethically when they prescribe placebos instead of... more
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More than half of doctors offer fake prescriptions to make patients feel better -- and that's OK, most doctors say.
The findings come from a survey of 679 internists and rheumatologists. Doctors in these specialties often see patients with chronic illnesses or chronic pains that are difficult, if not impossible, to cure. Sometimes fake medicine -- placebos -- make such patients feel better.
Fake drugs can have very real benefits. It's called the placebo effect. In clinical trials, many patients who receive placebos do better than real-world patients who get no treatment at all, notes study researcher Jon C. Tilburt, MD.
"Twenty to thirty percent of the benefit seen in rheumatism drug studies are due to the placebo effect. Real changes in health go along with the belief that patients will get better," Tilburt tells WebMD.
Tilburt and colleagues asked the doctors a series of questions, each a bit more blunt than the last:
* If a clinical trial showed a sugar pill was better than no treatment for fibromyalgia, would you recommend sugar pills to fibromyalgia patients? Yes, 58% of the doctors said.
* Do you ever actually recommend treatments primarily to enhance a patient's expectations? Yes, 80% of the doctors said.
* In the last year, did you recommend a placebo treatment to a patient? Yes, 55% of the doctors said.
What did the doctors actually tell their patients? Over two-thirds of those who prescribed placebos told patients they were getting "medicine not typically used for your condition but which might benefit you."
Is it "appropriate" to fool patients this way? Yes, 62% of the doctors said.
"I don't think doctors have anything but the patients' best interest in mind when they give a placebo prescription," says Tilburt. "They are thinking about both the physical and psychological well-being of the patient."
The hard-to-accept truth is that doctors don't have proven treatments for many of the ills that plague their patients.
"With untreatable conditions or chronic conditions when we have run out of treatments, doctors are willing to try virtually anything -- if they are convinced it is safe -- to make the patient feel better, even if the mechanism is a psychological mechanism," Tilburt says.More than half of doctors offer fake prescriptions to make patients feel better -- and... more
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