Contents
- Placebo effect – what is it?
- Placebo – three parts of the definition
- Placebo – in what situations is it most often used?
- Placebo effect – a psychological approach to the subject
- Placebo effect during treatment
- Placebo effect and clinical trials
- Placebo and nocebo – how are they different?
- Placebo products and alternative medicine – can they be harmful?
- Placebo in the treatment of homeopathy
- Placebo and contraception
- Is the placebo effect ethically moral?
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Although the placebo effect is not a commonly used method of “treating” patients, it is often used in the conduct of clinical trials. What is the placebo effect? Can it actually lead to the improvement of the patient’s health? We check not only how the placebo works, but also try to answer the question whether it is ethically moral.
Placebo effect – what is it?
Placebo is derived from Latin, meaning “I will like / I will like it”. The placebo effect is the administration of a drug to the patient that theoretically does not work, but may give the person the impression that their physical condition is improving. So placebo is the name that includes biologically inert substances that will not affect the functioning of the body in any way. Due to its therapeutic “effect”, placebos are often used as a form of therapy in homeopathy.
Placebo – three parts of the definition
In 1989, the American psychiatrist Arthur K. Shapiro wrote an article about the placebo. He included a definition of the concept divided into three parts that complement each other:
- Placebo as a therapy or its component that was applied to an unaware patient. It mainly had a psychological or psychotherapeutic effect;
- Placebo as part of a procedure or a substance used for experimental purposes;
- Placebo as an effect which is a consequence of the method used in the patient or group of patients.
Read: Placebo is raining not far from the doctor
Placebo – in what situations is it most often used?
The placebo effect is most often used during treatment:
- Arterial hypertension;
- Pain of various origins;
- Migraines;
- Bronchial asthma;
- Post-vaccination complications;
- Depressive disorder;
- Anxiety disorders;
- Hyperthyroidism.
Placebo effect – a psychological approach to the subject
In the case of the placebo effect, it should be emphasized that its source lies primarily in psychology. Unknowingly, this method has been used since antiquity. However, both the doctor and the patient had to firmly believe that they would be able to overcome the disease. What distinguishes the placebo effect is faith, which can also be described as the will to live.
It is not very often that the patient’s visit to the doctor and the prescription received help help him recover. And if the prescribed drugs are expensive, some will believe in the success of pharmacotherapy, not realizing that it is thanks to their own strength that they recover.
You can discuss any doubts as to the effect of placebo on treatment with a psychologist. Online consultation of contracts via the halodoctor.pl portal.
However, not only the price affects the apparent effect of the placebo, its Latin name, as well as the color and taste of the tablets (usually red and bitter), according to estimates, have a significant impact on the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy.
Placebo effect during treatment
The effects of using a placebo will depend on the patient’s attitude, which is why psychology is so often referred to in this context. For if the patient believes that the applied therapy will work, the effects will be visible faster than in people who do not believe in the success of the treatment.
In addition, in patients we can meet the Hawthorne effect – in a person who feels that it is being observed, clinical improvement in health will be noticed faster. In addition, biological factors influence the achievement of the placebo effect:
- Cortisol and endorphin levels;
- Genetic factors;
- Neurotransmitters, which mainly include dopamine;
- Endogenous opioid system and endocannabinoid system.
Placebo effect and clinical trials
The placebo effect is used in both drug and therapeutic research. These are EMB (evidence-based medicene). For example, a group of people is divided in half – some people take the tested drug, while the other part – a placebo. Clinical trials will be successful if the active substance’s effect is noticed in the people testing the drug and not in the placebo.
In this case, the so-called “Double-blind” – neither doctors nor patients know who is taking the drug under test and who is taking the placebo. Thanks to this, the specialist does not look for confirmation of his theses among people taking the tested substance.
In order for the tests to be as reliable as possible, the studies must be randomized – people for the tests are selected randomly.
Placebo and nocebo – how are they different?
The nocebo effect (Latin for “I don’t like me”) is the opposite of a placebo. Patients with a negative attitude towards the proposed therapy experience side effects of the drugs used, which theoretically should not have any effect on their body. The conducted research confirmed that the patient, who was told by the doctor that he had one month to live because of poor prognosis for cancer, did indeed die, although the autopsy revealed that the cancer was not the direct cause of death. Such situations have been repeatedly described by doctors who cited the negative attitude of the patient as the main reason.
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The nocebo effect is most often noticeable in people suffering from depression, who experience the side effects of the therapy much more severely. The noticeable symptoms of the nocebo effect include:
- Headache;
- Nausea;
- Vomiting;
- Numbness and / or tingling in the extremities;
- Itchy skin;
- Bad mood.
Placebo products and alternative medicine – can they be harmful?
Means used as placebos are most often substances diluted many times during production. For this reason, their impact on the body is negligible. However, it must not be forgotten that the strength of the placebo effect will not turn against us. The use of diluted substances may not always bring the desired effect, and on the contrary – lead to the deterioration of the patient’s health. Conventional treatment (usually with side effects and side effects) is, however, the basis that we should always refer to.
Placebo in the treatment of homeopathy
Placebo are most often used in homeopathy, i.e. during treatment with natural methods. Although it is sometimes confused with herbal medicine, not only plant extracts showing health-promoting properties are used during the treatment, but also minerals and raw materials. The most popular placebo substances in homeopathy include oscillococcinum, which is designed to treat symptoms of colds and flu. However, it only contains sugar and lactose.
Placebo and contraception
The placebo effect is used when using hormonal contraception. As a standard, there are 21 tablets in the blister that the woman should take. However, to get into the habit of dosing them daily, 7 placebo tablets are added.
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Is the placebo effect ethically moral?
The use of the placebo effect in medicine has been included in the directives of the Helsinki Declaration, the European Union and the World Health Organization. According to the regulation, placebos can be used in the case of non-effective treatment methods, as well as with the use of experimental therapy. From this it follows that the doctor cannot use the placebo effect unjustifiably in consultation with the patient.