The Placebo Effect: Redefining The Mind

Over the years the “rate of antidepressant use among all ages [have] seen an increase by nearly 400%...” even though deemed ineffective (Smith). This increase came about after more doctors were given a wider range of prescription rights; this allowed them to access a wider range of drugs, capable of delivering a greater level of high if misused. Patients are often prescribed medications without being fully evaluated, leading to treatments which might not be needed. As a result “‘… at least half the folks who are being treated with antidepressants aren't benefiting from the active pharmacological effects of the drugs themselves but from a placebo effect’ " (Hollon, Smith)which affects a person’s state of mind. The Placebo Effect creates the feeling that an ineffective drug is working because it is supposed to work even if the prescribed medication was a simple sugar-water mixture. The efficiency of antidepressants decrease as the prescriber moves across the classes. They are especially less effective when used to treat serious medical conditions but are often used instead of more serious

In Helen Pilcher’s article, “The New Witch Doctors: How Belief Can Kill,” she discusses the ethical dilemmas of the power of patients’ beliefs in the nocebo and placebo effects. The power of belief is so strong it can either make the patient feel better or become even sicker. This causes a problem for doctors because no matter how they state the truth it always ends up becoming a problem in the end.

These three elements are interconnected and can help to understand how illness is affected by different factors in a person’s life. In the first instance, a placebo affects only the psychological element. Consequently the placebo effects the physical and the social element because of the interconnection between these.

Placebos have been used in clinical trials since the eighteenth century but did not become a research topic until the late twentieth century (van Haselen, 2013). Most often when using placebos in clinical trials it is to determine whether or not the active agent has more effect on a patient than the placebo by providing each to the same number of recipients. The trials are almost always double blinded, this means that both person giving the drug and the person receiving it are unaware whether or not it is active so that good care and relationships must be present in the recipients at all times (Tavel, 2014). Ovosi, Ibrahim, & Bello-Ovosi (2017) declared “The choice between placebo and active controls in clinical trials affects the quality of the result as well as the ethical and scientific acceptability by both the public and regulatory bodies. It has, therefore, continued to generate discuss among researchers” (para. 3). This goes against the autonomy of a patient which is the right for a person to

In 2005 the Center of Disease Control and Prevention 's (CDC’s) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) tracked Americans using antidepressants for three years. The study concluded in 2008 that more than 1 in 10 Americans ages 12 and older have used an antidepressant drug. This study comes in the wake of a heated debate in the media about the effectiveness of antidepressants treating depression. Last year, antidepressants were the second most commonly prescribed medication, right behind drugs directed to lower cholesterol. With so many people in the United States relying on these drugs, it is easy to question if they are just expensive, overused placebos.

In the last section of the article the author explains the many issues that have arisen with the discovery of the placebo effect and the many challenges that the placebo effect faces before it is accepted as a common medical practice. One major issue the author brings up is the fact that the placebo effect is not the same for everyone. The author explains that not everyone can take a placebo and expect positive results. In order to explain this variability in the article the author cites Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist, of Rutgers University. Trivers explains

Doctors have started to hand out antidepressants to almost everyone who claims to be depressed and in doing so the patient is at risk of becoming addicted to the medication. Approximately one in ten Americans takes antidepressants and they are now considered the most prescribed drug. From 1996 to 2005, the use of antidepressants rose from 5.84% to 10.12%. (WebMD). In a recent study it was shown that for people with mild to moderate depression antidepressants work no different than that with a placebo. (SAVVYpsychologist) “The placebo effect is improvement due to expectations, not to actual treatment. The placebo effect is powerful, and leads to real relief through sugar pills, fake

The researchers later discovered that the success rates of the drug pill work 60%-70% of the time, while the placebo pills had a rate of 25%-30%, which is much higher than one would imagine. Even more interestingly, in fifteen reviews of a drug pill, between 30%-40% of the studies showed no difference in response to prescriptions versus placebos. Therefore, when compared to antidepressants, the success rate of placebos is only slightly lower than former pill, despite the placebo being non-medicated and

The study subjects were gathered from various ICU centers at various institutions, which is appropriate for study given the study objective and what the study was aiming to examine and determine (using a study drug vs. placebo in an ICU environment). Inclusion criteria were appropriate to assess the effects of the anti-pyretic acetaminophen due to their specificity of including those patients who were febrile with an infection that had been initiated with antimicrobial therapy. The exclusion criteria was extensive and included patient characteristics and disease states that may have skewed the true effect of acetaminophen. It was appropriate to limit these patients with the exclusion criteria from receiving treatment since their comorbidities

Since the beginning of the human race, stories are shared by voice and text. However, most controversy asks, “Should we tell the whole story?” Churches preach that it is sinful to lie even immoral. Opinions about this topic can be made, but telling the whole story, might affect ones medical treatment or a loved ones state of mind.

In today's society there is so much dependency on the perceived usefulness of material things and items. This approach has evolved the medical system into a giant, profit-orientated machine that treats health as merely a means to gain further competitive advantage. As a result drugs are often used as wonder treatments that allows healthily lived life. With so much dependence on this way of life, it should be no surprise that there certain side effects that may display themselves in other aspects of society.

An experiment was conducted with 35 people with major depression who weren’t currently on any medications. In the first phase of the experiment, the participants were assigned placebo pills at random, the scientists described the pills as a potentially fast-acting antidepressant (“active” placebo group) or pills that looked identical described as a placebo that had no antidepressant effects (“inactive” placebo group). Each group had taken the pills for a week, and then after a few days, they had switched the groups.

Neurocognitive enhancers (e.g. nootropics, stimulants) are psychoactive medications that aim to extend the abilities of the human mind. Although these drugs are being developed for the primary purpose of treating neurological conditions like dementia, some of the medications also improve performance in the healthy (Chaterjee 2). Pharmaceuticals that are used in the context of satisfying a non-medical goal are regarded as lifestyle drugs (Flower 182). Lifestyle medicine treats issues that rest at the margins of health and well-being. Whether we like it or not, there is a growing demand for cognitive enhancement. Barbara Sahakian, clinical neuropsychologist at Cambridge University, tells The New Yorker that “the drive for self-enhancement of cognition is likely to be as strong if not stronger than in the realms of ‘enhancement’ of beauty and sexual function” (Talbot). Our growing understanding of the neural bases of behavior, personality, and cognition will only catalyze the intense research efforts to develop neuroenhancers. The neuroscientific advances in our consumerist society make cosmetic neurology near inevitable. Thus, cosmetic psychopharmacology should not be prohibited.

the Placebo effect is interesting and open minding video, specially how the open the knee of the patient without doing anything, and how that made them feel relive. I like the part of positive thinking and working out and being more active.

The mind and body problem is a conundrum that argues the explanation of how mental