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The Power of Placebo

By Miss Cellania in Medicine on Mar 10, 2009 at 10:44 am


Placebos are medicines or procedures that don’t have any active medical ingredients. Their effects are all in your mind, but the brain has wonderful ways of making us feel better. eMedExpert Blog looks at the latest research on the placebo effect. Did you know there’s such a thing as placebo surgery?

In the 1950s, many physicians treated angina with ligation of the internal mammary artery. Despite claims of up to a 91% success rate, in the late 1950s, two skeptics conducted separate double-blind tests in which half the patients received skin incision, but not artery ligation12-13. In both studies, the placebo surgery proved equally effective as the ligation. And the overall rate of improvement with the placebo was 37%.

A 2002 study of arthroscopic knee surgery found that the outcomes for a placebo procedure were as good as those of the “real” surgery14.

Link -Thanks, Karen!

(image credit: Flickr user Akácio S. [ /photographyk ])


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COMMENT
  1. MTHS
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 11:10 am

    When i was in residency, we had a patient who in the hospital for a 'health issue'. it turned out that this patient was addicted to opiates and went into withdrawals because the patient's 'health issue' was not a pain problem so this patient was not getting pain medications. We mitigated the withdrawal by giving her morphine low dose, but this patient kept asking for it. this went on and on for the entire time of this patients treatment. The attending physician instructed the staff to substitute normal saline for the morphine in a tapering fashion. eventually the patient was only getting injections of saline. And the patient would still demand the 'morphine' and the patient got on and on about how the 'morphine' was great for the patient's pain and how much pain they were in if the 'morphine' wasnt on time.

  2. Tony LaRocca
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am

    I've been giving my son kids' vitamin C for years when he has a cold, calling it "Placebo." Kind of funny, but true, when he says "I don't feel good - I need a placebo!"

  3. Azuro
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 11:50 am

    overdosing on vit c only works in extreme circumstances, otherwise RDA will help you fight illnesses for sure

  4. LeftyX
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    Personally, I've always preferred brand-name placebos to the generic placebos.

  5. The Other Parker
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    It seems like the correct next step for MTHS would be to reveal to the patient what the "morphine" really was. When the patient realized the problem was all in his/her head, I'd think the problem would just go away. But I'm curious if this is really such a good idea. Any psychological experts around here know what the repercussions might be from that approach? Could the cognitive dissonance cause more trouble than it solved? What would be the appropriate course of action for curing a purely psychosomatic addiction?

  6. weirdloser
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    Acupuncture = Placebo

  7. dash
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    If only we could self-administer placebos.

  8. mattmaison
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    FDA Approves Sale Of Prescription Placebo | The Onion
    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39082

  9. MTHS
    Mar 10th, 2009 at 5:33 pm

    the story goes beyond this including follow ups and drug dependence counseling and hand holding. but that is for another time

  10. Moodindigo
    Mar 11th, 2009 at 8:46 am

    Ah, but dash people self-administer placebos all the time. :)

  11. Jess
    Mar 12th, 2009 at 12:17 am

    Homeopathy = placebo

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