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Placebo Effect

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steve_bank

Diabetic retinopathy and poor eyesight. Typos ...
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https://www.npr.org/2019/05/09/7216...-a-powerful-tool-that-medicine-has-overlooked

NPR has several on the placebo effect, I think this is the ome I listened to.

It was remarkable.

Common knee surgery for pain was fouind to be mostly placebo effect. In a trial half a group had the real surgery and the oter half went through the motions including an 9ncison.

Those with placebo procedures tended to fell better. The procedure which was usually commonly recommended, and a money maker, is no longer recmded.

In a trial with a pain killer even when those who got the placebo were told it was a placebo some still need the pill for pain relief.

Not completely understood, the conclusion was there is a direct connection between feeling and healing. Placebo effect can affect healing. Along with that the atmosphere in a doctor's office matters. Instrument with flashing lights, sounds and so on have a placebo effect. It explains religion.
 
Placebos don't work for everyone, but they do for many. I can give you a good example from my early days as a nurse. We had a patient on the medical floor in a hospital that I worked in for about a year. There was a woman who could have codeine orally for pain, but she always complained that it offered her no relief. As was very common back in those days, her doctor ordered her an injection of sterile water for pain, instead of the codeine. Every time we gave her the injection, she said it helped relief all of her pain.

A few years ago, I read an article in a medical rag that said that some people even have relief from placebos when they are told that they are being given a placebo. Now, that's just weird. I've tried to take things that are supposed to help with pain, but were not standard pain relievers. Not a single one ever helped me, so I tend to think I'm probably not one who is receptive to placebos. Religion is a placebo too, but it doesn't work for all of us. ;)
 
It's not the placebo pill that makes the difference. As the article indicates it's the interpersonal relationship and care and the human interaction that does the trick. Placebos won't fix a broken leg or a serious condition, particularly if the patient is unconscious. But for instances where the patient's feedback is the only indicator of effect it can work, again, because of the social bond of trust and care. Having been an IBS sufferer I can attest to the difference a caring doctor and a warm environment can make toward's healing. But I didn't cure my IBS with placebos, rather with hard science.
 
There was a discussion of Mesmer. In the 19th century he had rituals, a costume, and devices. When one person experienced something like a convulsion others too said they had the same response.
 
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