The Nocebo Effect

[dave32]

"If any pill has been shown undeniably to work in clinical trials, it is the sugar pill, along with its close cousin, the sham treatment. The placebo, as such inert and cost-free remedies are known, can relieve depression as effectively as Prozac, ease discomfort as effectively as acupuncture, and reduce as much disability and back pain as a widely used vertebral surgery that costs up to $5,000.

 

That the effect of bogus treatments is real has long been known, but the mechanism behind them is still largely a scientific mystery. The standard explanation is that we are just fooling ourselves. In Latin, placebo means "I shall please," which suggests that the placebo effect is just a fleeting mind trick  that the mere suggestion of pharmacologically induced pain relief humors the body into temporary recovery. In trials, every drug response is in fact assumed to be at least partially due to the placebo effect. But the confounding thing about the benefits of the placebo is that the effect is often not beneficial at all.

 

Consider the negative placebo response, called the nocebo effect. (The term nocebo is also from Latin, this time from the infinitive nocere, "to do harm.") A nocebo response occurs when the suggestion of a negative effect of an intervention leads to an actual negative outcome.

 

...the range of possible nocebo responses stretches far beyond stomachache (in extreme cases, ailing patients who are mistakenly informed that they have only a few months to live will die within their given time frame, even though postmortem investigations show that there was no physiological explanation for early death). In a new paper published in the journal Pain, researchers found that clinical-trial participants have reported a wide variety of nocebo-fueled medical complaints, including burning sensations outside the stomach, sleepiness, fatigue, vomiting, weakness and even taste disturbances, tinnitus and upper-respiratory-tract infection. What's more, these nocebo complaints aren't random; they tend to be specific to the type of drug that patients believe they may be taking."

 

Link

[Flashermac]

Isn't that what Voodoo is all about?

 

 

[Tyfon]

Placebo effect - underlying mechanism of homoeopathy (Greek for voodoo)...

[colorwolf]

so if "my friend" takes a blue odd-shaped sugar pill will he get as hard as when he takes pfizer's blue V pill?

i'll ask him to give it a try this weekend...

ps: do read the wired article on which this time piece is based...

[dave32]

so if "my friend" takes a blue odd-shaped sugar pill will he get as hard as when he takes pfizer's blue V pill?

 

Depending on circumstance, electro-chemistry shit, and frame of mind/belief... perhaps.

 

What I find interesting about this line of research is... the potency of belief systems to impact life.

 

But, to put my position bluntly -- Hell if I know.

 

I'll do a search for the Wired article.

 

 

 

[CTO]

My father who was a medical researcher and teacher often spoke of placebo effect. He felt it was up to 20% of medical cases - and could never offer a explanation other than "The mind is more powerful than we imagine"

 

He also felt that "There must be something working if acupuncture works - don't right off medical solutions we don't understand, yet"

[Faustian]

Lots of research on this about how the unconscious mind affects the autonomic nervous system.

 

Many shrinks hold the view that cancer is often (but not always obviously) related to a persons state of mind.

 

Back in the day it was normal practice to ask why someone was sick. Usually a reason could be found to do with what was emotionally happening in their life at the time.

 

The human brain is incredible.