Jan 3, 2022 08:16 PM
https://bigthink.com/health/placebo-effect-worse/
EXCERPT: The placebo effect is commonly misunderstood as a positive effect solely prompted by a patient’s belief in a treatment, even if that treatment is intended to be inert. That’s overly simplistic. Here’s what the placebo effect really is:
In a clinical trial, an experimental treatment is compared to a treatment intended to have no therapeutic value. This is the “placebo.” For example, in a pharmaceutical drug study, some participants will receive the actual drug while others will receive a placebo pill with an inert substance. Any improvement experienced by those receiving a placebo compared to those who received no treatment at all, or simply compared to their baseline symptoms, is the placebo effect.
[...] A review found that from 1990 to 2013, the placebo effect for neuropathic pain actually grew stronger, but only in the U.S. Direct-to-consumer drug advertising, which is not allowed in most countries, might be partially to blame. ... "Stronger and higher expectations of a drug’s effectiveness may translate into a bigger placebo effect.”
[...] Another explanation is that American clinical trials are growing more grandiose, and their increasing size, cost, and coddling of participants makes subjects expect to feel better, and so they do.
But there’s an even simpler explanation: clinical trials last much longer than they used to. [...] the longer a trial, the larger the placebo effect is likely to be.
This exposes a common myth: that placebos actually trigger some sort of innate healing ability. They do not. Placebos simply alter our perception of symptoms... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: The placebo effect is commonly misunderstood as a positive effect solely prompted by a patient’s belief in a treatment, even if that treatment is intended to be inert. That’s overly simplistic. Here’s what the placebo effect really is:
In a clinical trial, an experimental treatment is compared to a treatment intended to have no therapeutic value. This is the “placebo.” For example, in a pharmaceutical drug study, some participants will receive the actual drug while others will receive a placebo pill with an inert substance. Any improvement experienced by those receiving a placebo compared to those who received no treatment at all, or simply compared to their baseline symptoms, is the placebo effect.
[...] A review found that from 1990 to 2013, the placebo effect for neuropathic pain actually grew stronger, but only in the U.S. Direct-to-consumer drug advertising, which is not allowed in most countries, might be partially to blame. ... "Stronger and higher expectations of a drug’s effectiveness may translate into a bigger placebo effect.”
[...] Another explanation is that American clinical trials are growing more grandiose, and their increasing size, cost, and coddling of participants makes subjects expect to feel better, and so they do.
But there’s an even simpler explanation: clinical trials last much longer than they used to. [...] the longer a trial, the larger the placebo effect is likely to be.
This exposes a common myth: that placebos actually trigger some sort of innate healing ability. They do not. Placebos simply alter our perception of symptoms... (MORE - details)