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The placebo effect
The placebo effect happens when a person takes medication that he thinks will help, but the medication has not been proven to be effective for the specific condition.
Placebos work in about 30 percent of patients. Some placebos contain no active ingredient. Other placebos do have active ingredients but aren't proven to work on the patient's particular condition. There are even placebos in the form of surgery, injections, and other types of medical therapies.
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The subject-expectancy effect
When people know what the result of taking a pill is supposed to be, they might unconsciously change their reaction to cause that result or report that result has taken place even if it hasn't.
However, studies show that a placebo doesn't trick the brain - the brain reacts differently to a drug than a placebo. A 2004 study showed that the expectation of pain relief causes the brain's relief system to activate.
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Placebos in research
Placebos are often used in clinical drug trials to determine how well a potential medicine will work.
- There are two different groups of subjects in a placebo-controlled trial - one receives the experimental drug and the other the placebo. Neither researchers nor subjects know which group is receiving the real drug or the placebo.
- Some researchers are questioning the placebo-controlled trial. Not everyone thinks a drug is ineffective if the placebo performs better.
- Other critics of the placebo-controlled trial state it's wrong to attribute all positive outcomes to the placebo because many illnesses can resolve without any treatment.
- When a patient takes a placebo and experiences adverse side effects, it's called a nocebo effect. Patients taking active drugs have also been known to have side effects that can't be directly attributed to the drug.
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Prescribing placebos
A 2007 study revealed that 45 percent of doctors had prescribed a placebo at some point. Doctors believed that placebos had a therapeutic effect.
The most commonly prescribed placebos are aspirin, vitamins, and antibiotics. Doctors prescribe placebos because they have no other form of relief to offer the patient. Other times, the patient insists on taking some type of medication.
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The placebo prescribing controversy
The American Medical Association created a policy concerning placebos that states that "physicians may use placebos for diagnosis or treatment only if the patient is informed of and agrees to its use."
- Generally, doctors who prescribe placebos say that they have something they believe may help, but they don't know exactly how it will work. They don't believe they are lying to the patient, because the patient could still benefit from the placebo effect.
- Another problem in prescribing placebos is that they have been shown to only work on half the population. The placebo effect is also short-term - it doesn't work for chronic conditions.
- Prescribing drugs such as sedatives and antibiotics as placebos could do more harm than good. Many sedatives are habit-forming, and prescribing antibiotics may contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
Naming Hurricanes
Hurricanes used to be tagged with random numbers, sometimes latitude and longitude numbers, and other times they were named after the place where they came ashore.
Now, the World Meteorolog...
Why hurricanes have names
Names are easier to remember than numbers and technical terms. It is easier for the media to report on, and for people to pay attention to, than if a hurricane was named, for example, Hurrican Two.
- The names come in alphabetical order from a set of six lists.
- The names used in 2020 (Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, etc.) will come around again in 2026.
- The letters beginning with Q, U, X, Y, Z are omitted.
- If forecasters run out of the alphabet, they turn to the Greek alphabet.
- If a storm was particularly devastating, then those names are retired, such as Hurrican Andrew, Hugo, and Katrina.
Emotions: A Primer
Basic emotions like anger, surprise, disgust, joy, fear and sadness are thought to be universal, and a naturally-occuring reflexive response to a given situation, event or circumstance.
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Kinds Of Emotions
- In Psychology, emotions can be either the result of an experience of a situation, or a certain perception of changes that occur within our bodies.
- There are higher emotions like self-awareness, self-consciousness, and an increased sense of empathy or compassion for others.
- Moral emotions include pride, guilt, shame and embarrassment.
Reasons We Experience Emotions
Emotions are a basic response to change, both internal and external, sometimes simultaneously. While our mood lasts for hours or even days, emotions are fleeting, like waves.
Emotions are a spontaneous, motivating agent of change, making us act in our most natural, human way, before the mind comes in the picture, which looks at other signals before reacting.
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Key Ideas
Effects of ordinary medication
There’s emerging evidence that ordinary medications - from paracetamol to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications, and antidepressants - can change our brains. They can make us impulsive...
The crisis of over-medication
- The US buys an equivalent of 298 paracetamol tablets per person every year.
- The average American consumes $1,200 worth of prescription medications over the same period.
- In the UK, one in 10 people over the age of 65 takes eight medications every week.
Statins and personality changes
- People with lower cholesterol levels are more likely to die violent deaths.
- If you put primates on a low-cholesterol diet, they become more aggressive. Lowering animals’ cholesterol seems to affect their levels of serotonin. Even fruit flies start fighting if you interfere with their serotonin levels.
- Studies have linked serotonin levels in people to violence, impulsivity, suicide, and murder.
- In a randomized controlled trial, statins were found to increase aggression in post-menopausal women though, oddly, not in men. Giving statins to Nile tilapia made them more confrontational and altered the levels of serotonin in their brains.