Alternative Medicine. The Placebo Effect
When the disease is treated successfully, the success can be for one of three reasons.
- The first reason is that the cure is a direct result of treatment, as in the case of bacterium killed by antibiotics.
- Secondly, the disease is what is known as self-regulating – in other words, the natural healing power of the body clears it ultimately whether it is treated or not, as in the case of cold.
- Thirdly, when is given the substance that has no healing power, but because of patient’s faith in its curative power, he is recovering.
This is called the placebo effect. The new idea of the placebo goes back to the dawn of medical history, but this term in a medical sense was not coined until 1890. The editor of Medical Press talks about a woman who successfully sued her doctor for water injection instead of her morphine. The editor says: “We feel sorry for it, but apparently the law does not think well of placebos”. Despite the doctor’s use of water, however, the woman had thought it to be morphine at the time and had been cured. If the doctor had told her that it was pure water, her cure would probably not have happened.
Most people visiting the doctor’s surgery have symptoms such as headache, backache, stomach upset, sore throat or fatigue. When a person with such a complaint believes in his doctor and the doctor demonstrates faith in his treatment, this combination is powerful enough to effect the improvement, and in most cases, a cure. As a rule, no medication is needed. However, the patient is expecting medication and feels cheated if simply told to go home and rest. The doctor, knowing that prescribes something. In a typical medical practice, a placebo isn’t usually water, but some kind of licensed medicines, tonic, cough syrup, etc., which will have no adverse side effects, but will be effective because the patient believes that it will be.
It was estimated that between 35 percent and 45 percent of all prescriptions today are unlikely to have any therapeutic effect on diseases for which they were prescribed.
Patients are mistaken in thinking that their treatment is curing them. Doctors may also come to believe it.
Outstanding physician, Richard Asher, pointing out that the enthusiasm of the therapist is as important to the success of treatment as the faith of his patients went on: “If you truly believe in your treatment, even thou controlled studies show that it is useless, then your results will be much better, your patients are much better, and your income is much better, too.”
The placebo effect is very strong. Its power is confirmed in double-blind, controlled trials, which are used to test the effectiveness of drugs and other treatments.
Patients are usually divided randomly into two groups: one group will take the medicine, and the other group, serving as controls, will be given something that appears to be identical to the drug, but which in fact is an inert substance that has no healing properties (a placebo).
Neither the patients nor the doctors administering substances know which group is taking placebo and which is taking the drug. They both are “blind”. In these conditions we can expect changes in those who took drugs and those who took placebo will remain without any changes. In fact, there always are changes in both groups, changes in the symptoms of those who took placebo, an imitation of changes in those receiving the drug. This is the placebo effect.
Related posts:
[...] first aid real-life scenarios first aid example first aid kit for a hike cpr class martinsburg wv emergency first aid choking dog cpr training center american heart assn cpr training guidelines standard first aid courses in [...]
Pingback by flood insurance pa - Page 1184 — May 8, 2011 @ 11:24
I’ve learn several excellent stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how so much attempt you place to create any such great informative site.
Comment by kratom king — March 30, 2012 @ 21:53