Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Placebos
I did my research project on the placebo effect and the psychological effects that it has on medical patients. It has been found in much research that the placebo effect has great psychological effects for a few reasons. one might be that the patient expects a response to occur, so the patient either believes a reaction has occured, or one actually does occur. Another reason might be that the patient believes something has happened as a result of the placebo when it really hasn't. But in the end, placebos relieve patients of diseases and pain more than 50% of the time. Have any of you ever had experience with placebo medications or participated in an experiment involving placebos?
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Hey Ashley,
I haven't participated in any experiments with placebos, but in Affective Neuroscience we have been talking about the effects of placebos on people with depression. Did you read about that in any of your research? I find it very interesting.. psychopathology is super interesting to me haha.
This is a big tangent but it is really interesting..sort of having to do with placebos..In one study of people with treatment-resistant depression (AKA no amount of medication or clinical therapy had any effect on their depression), an electrode was implanted near a certain area of the brain that was hyperactive (the subgenual cingulate cortex.. hyperactivity in this area is associated with depression) and electrical pulses were given to the patient. The patient was not aware of when the pulses were being administered.. but it was found that there was no placebo effect! When the patient was told they were receiving the shock (but it was really at 0V) there was no effect, but when the shock reached a certain threshold (about 4V), the symptoms of depression lifted!
There has also been a lot of debate on whether antidepressants simply cure the physical symptoms of depression, or whether they actually make the patient's mood better, whether it be neurochemically or in a more "placebo effect" style.
Wow this was a long post.
Taylor
I was talking to a friend about this days ago and she told me a story about this lady whose alzheimer got worse over time so she had surgery. After surgery she said that she felt not as "confused" as before with the environment. The doctors were not sure if the surgery had actually fixed her memory problems or if it was all in her mind as the placebo effect.
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