Hello dtnl42,
An article at the FDA website ?The Healing Power of Placebos?
discusses the remarkable recovery of a patient with chronic fatigue
syndrome with a placebo.
Excerpt:
?One patient stands out in the memory of Stephen Straus, M.D., for her
remarkable recovery, more than 10 years ago, from chronic fatigue
syndrome. The woman, then in her 30s, was "very significantly
impaired," says Straus, chief of the Laboratory of Clinical
Investigation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases. "She had no energy, couldn't work, and spent most of her
time at home." But her strength was restored during a study to test
the effectiveness of an experimental chronic fatigue drug.
(?)
?Like many drug studies, the chronic fatigue medication trial was a
"placebo-controlled" study, meaning that a portion of the patients
took the experimental drug, while others took look-alike pills with no
active ingredient, with neither researchers nor patients knowing which
patients were getting which.?
(?)
Turns out, the woman's quick turnaround from chronic fatigue occurred
after taking placebo pills, not the experimental drug. Straus says,
"She was amazed by the revelation that she'd gotten better on
placebo."
FDA
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2000/100_heal.html
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According to a study from the American Psychological Association, the
placebo effect accounts for fifty percent of improvement in depressed
patients taking antidepressants.
Example:
?To determine the placebo effect of antidepressant medications,
psychologist Guy Sapirstein, Ph.D., at the University of Connecticut,
analyzed 39 studies of depressed patients from 1974 to 1995. The
studies included patients with a primary diagnosis of depression, were
randomized, and controlled for patients who received no treatment.
Studies that measured the effects of antidepressant medications such
as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertaline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil) were
included in the analysis.
Dr. Sapirstein concluded that the pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic
effects of antidepressants indicates that while only 27 percent of the
response to medication is due to the medication alone (a true
pharmacologic effect), 50 percent is due to the psychological impact
of administering the medication (placebo effect) and 23 percent is due
to other 'nonspecific factors.' 'People benefiting from drugs are
benefiting because they think that taking the antidepressant medicine
is working,' Dr. Sapirstein said.?
American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org/releases/placebo.html
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Here are a few more examples taken from a New York Times article ?The
Placebo Prescription?
?In a recent study on VEGF, a genetically engineered heart drug
announced with much fanfare by its manufacturer, Genentech, the
placebo actually performed better . Two months after their treatments,
patients who had gotten low doses of VEGF could walk 26 seconds longer
on a treadmill, those who had gotten high doses could walk 32 seconds
longer and those who had gotten a placebo could walk.?
(. . .)
?Forty years ago, a young Seattle cardiologist named Leonard Cobb
conducted a unique trial of a procedure then commonly used for angina,
in which doctors made small incisions in the chest and tied knots in
two arteries to try to increase blood flow to the heart. It was a
popular technique -- 90 percent of patients reported that it helped --
but when Cobb compared it with placebo surgery in which he made
incisions but did not tie off the arteries, the sham operations proved
just as successful. The procedure, known as internal mammary ligation,
was soon abandoned.?
(. . .)
?Doctors in one study successfully eliminated warts by painting them
with a brightly colored, inert dye and promising patients the warts
would be gone when the color wore off. In a study of asthmatics,
researchers found that they could produce dilation of the airways by
simply telling people they were inhaling a bronchiodilator, even when
they weren't. Patients suffering pain after wisdom-tooth extraction
got just as much relief from a fake application of ultrasound as from
a real one, so long as both patient and therapist thought the machine
was on. Fifty-two percent of the colitis patients treated with placebo
in 11 different trials reported feeling better -- and 50 percent of
the inflamed intestines actually looked better when assessed with a
sigmoidoscope.?
Source:The Placebo Prescription by Margaret Talbot, New York Times
Magazine, January 9, 2000
Read the full text of this article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000109mag-talbot7.html
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The Baltimore Sun cited these examples in a 1999 article:
?Patients who were taken off blood-pressure medicine for three weeks
so they could try a new drug saw their blood pressure drop to normal
in the period when they were taking no drug at all.?
?Thousands of elderly Chinese Americans in California born in years
with bad astrological qualities died sooner from cancer than Chinese
Americans with the same disease who were born in good astrological
years. A study of whites with the disease revealed no similar
correlation of cancer deaths and astrological signs in birth years.?
?A pilot study of pretend knee surgery on ten Houston veterans
hospital patients produced such startling results that doctors
launched a larger study.?
?A saline injection was enough to kill the pain in 30 to 40 percent of
people who got their wisdom teeth out, according to one study at the
University of Maryland. A symbolic injection stimulated patients'
production of morphine endorphins in a 20-year-old California study.?
?In a landmark 1958 study, patients underwent sham surgery for angina
(pain due to a constricted blood supply). They got local anesthesia
and were cut slightly, but they did better than patients who actually
had the surgical procedure.?
McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web
http://www.mcmanweb.com/article-18.htm
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The placebo response is one of the most widely known examples of
mind-body interactions in contemporary, scientific medicine,
Other mind-body interventions include:
Psychotherapy
Support groups
Meditation
Imagery
Hypnosis
Biofeedback
Yoga
Dance therapy
Music therapy
Art therapy,
Prayer
Mental healing
Read about each one of the mind-body interventions here:
http://www.holistic-online.com/hol_mindcontrol.htm
I hope you find this information helpful!
Search criteria:
Placebo effect
Placebo effect examples
Best Regards,
Bobbie7 |
