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Dr. Zafirides
189 Posts |
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pspa123
672 Posts |
 Posted - 01/25/2013 : 08:28:05
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The first paragraph. I have heard it said that the history of medicine is mostly about harnessing the placebo effect.
TWO WEEKS INTO Ted Kaptchuk’s first randomized clinical drug trial, nearly a third of his 270 subjects complained of awful side effects. All the patients had joined the study hoping to alleviate severe arm pain: carpal tunnel, tendinitis, chronic pain in the elbow, shoulder, wrist. In one part of the study, half the subjects received pain-reducing pills; the others were offered acupuncture treatments. And in both cases, people began to call in, saying they couldn’t get out of bed. The pills were making them sluggish, the needles caused swelling and redness; some patients’ pain ballooned to nightmarish levels. “The side effects were simply amazing,” Kaptchuk explains; curiously, they were exactly what patients had been warned their treatment might produce. But even more astounding, most of the other patients reported real relief, and those who received acupuncture felt even better than those on the anti-pain pill. These were exceptional findings: no one had ever proven that acupuncture worked better than painkillers. But Kaptchuk’s study didn’t prove it, either. The pills his team had given patients were actually made of cornstarch; the “acupuncture” needles were retractable shams that never pierced the skin. The study wasn’t aimed at comparing two treatments. It was designed to compare two fakes. |
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Sylvia
199 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 09:06:16
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From that article
The study’s results shocked the investigators themselves: even patients who knew they were taking placebos described real improvement, reporting twice as much symptom relief as the no-treatment group. That’s a difference so significant, says Kaptchuk, it’s comparable to the improvement seen in trials for the best real IBS drugs.
That is ca-razy! Thanks for the article Doc! |
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Dr. Zafirides
189 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 09:21:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Sylvia
That is ca-razy! Thanks for the article Doc!
Your welcome, but all thanks goes to Alan Gordon for finding it and forwarding it along to all of us!!
-PZ |
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pspa123
672 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 11:25:04
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| Another interesting aspect of the placebo effect, at least from personal experience, is that if one doesn't expect a pill to work, it may not. I took a lot of psych drugs back when, but I was completely skeptical of all of them, and none of them ever worked. Same with so-called natural treatments I was assured would work. |
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 15:42:09
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Thanks for the article dr Z and Alan. Another great read.
People in the East have heal their illness for thousand of year with placebo medicine. Those A needles and herbs were skillfully used by their caring and trusting doctors to heal all kind of diseases. They were so good at harvesting those placebo effect, they sometime cure incurable diseases. They somehow able to use placebo effect to trigger the patients own body and mind's healing power.
Here is another article on Placebo: http://www.wrf.org/alternative-therapies/power-of-mind-placebo.php , Read the part about patient name Wright to see how powerful placebo effect can be.
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
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pspa123
672 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 15:47:48
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This is incredible. The power of suggestion. Can anyone doubt the power of the shaman?
“A group of patients were told they were given LSD when in fact they were given the placebo. They had all the physiological effects noted with LSD.” |
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chickenbone
Panama
398 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 18:42:07
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Interesting article. You know, I have tried a lot of alternative medicine over the years, most of which I now think is a sham, basically a placebo. The reason I think this way is that, every time I read about some miracle thing to try and actually tried it, it worked remarkably well - FOR ONE WEEK OR LESS. That is the trouble with the placebo effect - it is usually only temporary. I am looking for permanent cures.
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 19:09:45
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quote:
Originally posted by chickenbone
Interesting article. You know, I have tried a lot of alternative medicine over the years, most of which I now think is a sham, basically a placebo. The reason I think this way is that, every time I read about some miracle thing to try and actually tried it, it worked remarkably well - FOR ONE WEEK OR LESS. That is the trouble with the placebo effect - it is usually only temporary. I am looking for permanent cures.
The placebo effect will be permanent when you start to realize that the healing power of the placebo came from your mind, from your belief. Your body has the amazing power to heal itself if you allow it, if you believe that it will heal.
If you believe that sham pill can heal you, it will.
If you believe your body will heal itself, it will.
If you believe you are healthy, you are.
it is all about the power of your belief, mind power.
The nocebo effect work exactly the same way, with the opposite effect. If you believe there is something wrong with any of your body part, that body part will hurt. Your body will do exactly what you imagine in your mind.
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
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alix
USA
434 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2013 : 22:17:11
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I am not sure it is only a placebo effect when it comes to TMS.
For example I had surgery a few years ago (I had not heard of Sarno yet).
My pain went away completely for a few weeks. So fine, you can say that was a placebo.
But what is stranger is that my digestive problems went away too. Clearly I was expecting the pain to go away due to the surgery, but not my digestive problems at all.
So it seems, in retrospect, that the surgery was not a placebo, but instead a major disruptive event for the unconscious mind that temporarily "forgot" to apply the TMS symptoms which were both pain and digestive problems.
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The Placebo Phenomenon: by Dr. Ted Kaptchuk
