Transcript Schizophrenia - You Can Do It!

Placebo Effect
Placebo

Placebo is a Latin word that literally means “ I shall
please”

The idea is that by pleasing someone in someway
that will help them get better from disease

The mechanism of placebo is psychological. It makes
the person believe that he is being helped by this
treatment (the placebo)
Shapero’s Definition

A placebo is defined as any therapy or
component of therapy that is deliberately
used for its nonspecific, psychological, or
psychophysiological effect, or that is used for
its presumed specific effect, but is without
specific activity for the condition being
treated
Placebo Effect Can Happen

Whether you deliberately give it to the patient
knowing that it has no effect on the condition

Or when using medication that is having no specific
effect on the condition & you don’t know that, &
you think it does
What matters is what the individual think he’s
getting
Placebo Effect & Drug Manufacturer

Placebo effect creates a problem for drug manufacturers,
they can not tell if the chemicals in the medicine are actually
treating the illness or is it the placebo effect

They usually use a special way to study the drug, where they
use placebo & the real medication

On group of people is given the real medication & the other
group is given the placebo, & both groups don’t know which
is which

Then they have to demonstrate that the real drug has a
better effect than the placebo effect
Placebo Effect

Actually placebo effect is a real effect, we don’t
know how it is achieved , we don’t know what the
interaction is between the mind & the body.

If people think that they are being subjected to
some procedure that’s going to help cure them, that
has some positive real effect on them

However, placebo effect along with appropriate
medication will always be more effective
Factors That Could Cause The Patient
To Feel More Confident

The basis of the placebo effect seems to be related
to factors that cause patients to feel more
confident

Such factors are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Personality type (more optimistic)
Positive beliefs about the treatment
Just knowing that someone cares & wants to help
Confidence inspired by the physician
General circumstances of treatment
Isenberg Definition of Placebo Effect

Properties of placebo are said to be
nonspecific because they are largely
independent from the chemical substances
from which they are composed. Because they
manifest in such a wide verity of disorder,
their effects also could not be due to any
single mechanism
Surely, Isenberg Is Wrong Because:

Think of the immune system. It can be more or less
affective in different people, so if the immune
system is more effective you are going to be less
vulnerable to all sorts of diseases.

Also we know that when people are stressed this can
impair the immune system

The opposite might also be true. If you can make
someone feel less depresses, that will increase the
effectiveness of the immune system
Importance of Psychological Factors in
Treatment of Illness in Ancient Times

Psychological factors plays a very important role in
treatment of illness, they were certainly important in
the medicine practice in ancient time

According to Galen, "He cures most successfully in
whom the people have the most confidence."

He estimated that 60% of patients had emotional
problems causing symptoms
Importance of Psychological Factors in
Treatment of Illness in Ancient Times

In ancient times, the main reason why many
forms of primitive treatment had any
therapeutic value is the placebo effect, since
these drugs were mostly ineffective, or even
sometimes poisonous !
Some Examples of Gradients Used in
Medication in Earlier Times

Galen’s list of medication contained 820 animal,
vegetable & mineral substances that were entirely
worthless in terms of the direct physical & chemical
effects on the disease they were suppose to treat

“Unicorn’s horn” was included in one of the
medications. It was one of the things that was
supposed to make people so powerful! But actually
a Unicorn exists only in fairy tails! It is NOT real
Medical Reasoning in Former Times

Medical reasoning in former times was based
on nothing more than a belief that the real
properties of a particular substance might be
transferred to the patient

Example:

They used the fat of the hirsute bear (hairy bear)
to rub it in someone’s head thinking it would cure
boldness!!
Review Articles About Placebo Effect

In a study, placebo medication reduced pain in 35% of the
patients studied

45% of the medication that people get today have no
capacity to cure the problem that they have!

People are quiet often given medications that are wrong for
the condition they are suffering from

Vitamins, antibiotics, x-rays & surgery had their positive
effect partly (or sometimes completely) through the placebo
effect
 Good Luck To You All 