Why an inert substance, a so-called "sugar pill," or a fake
surgery or therapy would be effective, is not completely known. Placebo
medications are sometimes prescribed when no drug is really needed because
they make patients feel well taken care of. Placebos are also used as controls
in scientific studies on the effectiveness of drugs.
So-called double blind experiments, where neither the doctor nor the
patient knows whether the given medication is the experimental drug or
the placebo, are often done to assure unbiased, statistically reliable
results. The "placebo effect is an improvement in health due not to any
treatment but only to the patient's belief that he or she will improve
(as by taking a dummy pill that is thought to be a cure).
An opposite, or "negative placebo effect, has been observed when patients
believe their health will get worse. Research has confirmed that a fake
treatment, made from an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water,
or saline solution, can have a "placebo
effect"--that is, the sham medication can sometimes improve a patient's
condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be
helpful. For a given medical condition, it's not unusual for one-third
of patients to feel better in response to treatment with placebo.
"Expectation is a powerful thing," says Robert
DeLap, M.D., head of one of the Food and Drug Administration's Offices
of Drug Evaluation. "The more you believe you're going to benefit from
a treatment, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit."
To separate out this power of positive thinking and some other variables
from a drug's true medical benefits, companies seeking FDA approval of
a new treatment often use placebo-controlled drug studies. If patients
on the new drug fare significantly better than those taking placebo, the
study helps support the conclusion that the medicine is effective.
So, a placebo is an inert substance, or "fake"
surgery or therapy, used as a control in an
experiment or given to a patient for its possible or probable beneficial
effect.In a drug study, one group of patients is given a placebo and another
the experimental drug, to see if the drug group's health improvements sufficiently
surpass those from placebo. Significance is measured by relation to chance:
if an event is not likely due to chance, then its occurrence is significant.
A double-blind
test is a control group test where neither the evaluator nor the subject
knows which items are controls. A random test is one which randomly assigns
items to the control or experimental groups. The purpose of controls, double-blind
and random testing is to reduce error, self-deception and bias.
The Placebo
Effect is one of the most common phenomena observed in medicine, but
also a very mysterious one. It is powerful. In a study carried out at the
University of Harvard, its effectiveness was tested in a wide range of
disturbances, including pain, arterial hypertension and asthma. The result
was impressive: 30
to 40% of the patients obtained relief with the use of placebo. Furthermore,
the placebo effect is not limited to medicines but it can appear with any
kind of medical procedure.
In a trial to test the value of a surgical procedure (ligature of an
artery in the thorax) to treat angina pectoris (pain in the chest caused
by chronic heart ischemia), the placebo procedure consisted in anesthetizing
the patient and only cutting his skin. The thus fictitiously treated patients
showed an 80% improvement while those actually operated upon only 40%.
In other words: placebo acted better than surgery. Similarly, the
Placebo
Effect accounts for up
to fifty percent of improvement in depressed patients taking antidepressants.
So, what counts is the reality present in the brain, not the pharmacological
one of the pharmacist or even the real conditions of the environment.
The placebo
effect is the measurable or observable effect on a person or group
that has been given a placebo treatment. A placebo is an inert substance,
or "fake" surgery or therapy, used as a
control in an experiment or given to a patient for its possible or
probable beneficial effect. Why an inert substance, a so-called "sugar
pill," or a fake surgery or therapy would be effective, is not completely
known.
Many believe the placebo effect is psychological,
due to either a real effect caused by belief or to a subjective
delusion. If I believe the pill will help, it will help. The
psychological theory is that it's all in your mind. But even in
animals several environmental stimuli can unite to each other, forming
a chain. Any of those stimuli can act as a sign and turn the conditioned
reflex on.
Placebos are
not always given wittingly. Homeopathy
or even some conventional treatments may work through the placebo effect
and that patients with cancer gain in optimism because of complementary
treatments. When the placebo response works by expectancy,
it apparently does so by turning on the biochemical pathways that produce
endorphins.
Automatically our brains filter all sensory data for threats of danger
ready to trigger an alarm
reaction. Madison Avenue has careful studies showing just what words,
shapes and colors command our attention. Unchecked, these artificially
elevated levels of stress
related hormones begin to take a toll on the body's immune system and
over-all stamina.
So there is a opposite to the placebo effect: fear. For example, in
voodoo death, the victim must believe in the curse or spell for it to be
effective. All people experience physiological reactions to anticipation
and stress, something like the fight-or-flight
response, that help them to survive and cope. The body responds by producing
adrenaline, dopamine or nor epinephrine so that we can think and act more
quickly and are generally more alert.
Stress overload is quite real in contemporary life, but it is usually
up to us to independently find whatever remedy we can. The complexity of
our lives, compounded by technology behooves us to take an active role
in finding rest and repose: bliss.
If there is an organic impetus toward the divine it may have its roots
here. Before science and medicine there was no place to turn in crisis
but religion or "magic."
We know that positive
emotions increase creativity, our immune responses, and can even elevate
the IQ. Most of us have learned that the the principles of meditation and
creative
visualization work, even if we don't practice them. Whatever we pay
attention to is what we become.
In order to usher in a new society propagating peace, harmony, and wholeness,
we must change our perspectives
of what is valued.
