Do placebo pills really work?

[Frank Goad]

Do placebo pills really work?

 

[PureX]

Not always and not for everyone. But they do work for some people some of the time.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Work for what?

Drug trials? Yes.

Reducing patients' symptoms who think they're taking real medicine? Yes.

Curing diseases? Rarely, if at all.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Do placebo pills really work?

Yes, placebos really do work. Now, when we say that, we aren't talking about 100% of the time. No everyone is equally suggestable. But the thing is, placebos should never work, and yet a good deal of the time they do.

A related topic is the nocebo, which is when you have an adverse reaction to something you believe is harmful even when it is not. For example, there are people who had bad reactions to the flu vaccine, not because they were allergic or because the flu vaccine causes illness, but because they EXPECTED a bad reaction to the vaccine.

 

[Revoltingest]

Do placebo pills really work?

Yes.
But only when the patient is given the expectation they'll work.

 

[RabbiO]

Do placebo pills really work?

Are you asking a general question or is there a particular condition you have for which you think you may have been given a placebo?

 

[Eddi]

Do placebo pills really work?

The placebo effect has been verified as real

That's why they give the control group placebos in drug trials

 

[wellwisher]

Yes, placebos really do work. Now, when we say that, we aren't talking about 100% of the time. No everyone is equally suggestable. But the thing is, placebos should never work, and yet a good deal of the time they do.

A related topic is the nocebo, which is when you have an adverse reaction to something you believe is harmful even when it is not. For example, there are people who had bad reactions to the flu vaccine, not because they were allergic or because the flu vaccine causes illness, but because they EXPECTED a bad reaction to the vaccine.

Work for what?

Drug trials? Yes.

Reducing patients' symptoms who think they're taking real medicine? Yes.

Curing diseases? Rarely, if at all.

If we add both of these observations together, it appears to suggest there appears to also be what could be called, placebo symptoms of disease, that can be induced by marketing and hype. A disease is physical, but is not psychosomatic. Whereas, the symptoms can be psychosomatic. If you had a psychosomatic symptom of a disease, this could be cured with a placebo; same but opposite.

This tells me the effort to market new drugs, may cause psychosomatic or placebo symptoms in some people. Some will be cured while others with this placebo condition will get powerful drugs they may not need, leading to mild poisoning. Medicine, may be unknowingly breaking their Hippocratic Oath, due to perks and freebies and lack of awareness of placebo symptoms,. This could explain the rise of health issue in children; placebo symptoms in parents, treated as disease, with drugs not needed. It can effect the unborn.

The analogy is buying a car from a shady used car salesman, who makes you feel the car is very safe. You live the delusion of safety, which in the rational world, is not that safe. One day, you are driving the wheel falls off and there is an accident; unintended consequences. It may not be something that the doctor or patient did purposely, but the math adds to a less than optimized outcome. This adds new business; have to buy another car or take a new medicine.

 

[Valjean]

What does "work" mean?
They work for conditions that will respond to phychosomatic suggestion.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

A disease is physical, but is not psychosomatic.

Unless I have misunderstood you, you are making an extremely common mistake. A nocebo effect is not psychosomatic. Hysterical blindness is not psychosomatic. A psychosomatic condition is when psychological problems such as stress or anxiety create a genuine, real physical problems, such as the worrying person getting an ulcer, or coming down with a migraine because a test overwhelmed you.

The thing about placebos is that they positively affect actual diseases, diseases that can be verified, such as IBS or hypertension.

This tells me the effort to market new drugs, may cause psychosomatic or placebo symptoms in some people.

I'm confused. I haven't seen a single commercial for an untested drug or a placebo.

The drug studies that have to be done BEFORE marketing always have a control group where a placebo is used. In order to get FDA approval, the drug has to have benefits higher than the placebo group.