| College of Sciences Newsletter | Edition 9 | January 1, 2002 |
| College of Sciences Newsletter | Edition 9 | January 1, 2002 |
Placebos and HealthTerry Blumenthal, psychology professor at Wake Forest University and expert in psychopharmacology, gave an invited talk on “Placebos and Health” on Nov. 8. This presentation was an extension of the College of Sciences’ “Investigating Modern Pseudoscience” lecture series and was sponsored by Science and Reason in Hampton Roads.
Science and Reason in Hampton Roads (SRHR) is an organization of students, faculty and community residents dedicated to promoting science, the scientific method, rational thinking and critical examination of dubious or extraordinary claims. For information on SRHR, contact Larry Weinstein, associate professor of physics, at 757-683-5803.
Placebos are often thought of as inert or inactive, but they can still have powerful effects in reducing problematic symptoms. See the summary of the lecture below:
Terry Blumenthal discusses placebos during his lecture sponsored by the Society for Science and Reason in Hampton Roads.
The Placebo Effect
by Terry BlumenthalA placebo is a pharmacologically inert substance, sham procedure, or therapeutic symbol that elicits a significant reaction. Placebos can be a substance (sugar pills, snake oil), a practice (faith healing, brand markings), a person (the doctor or preacher), or an attitude (the person believes in some practice, person, or substance). Placebo responses can also be seen when an active drug or effective procedure is used, since the drug effect can be modified by the expectancy or conditioning history of the recipient.
In all cases, we are looking for the cause of a change in behavior or symptoms, and such a change can occur for a number of reasons. To see a change, we need to compare measures on a post-test to those on a pre-test, and we also should have a group that gets a known treatment, a group that gets a placebo, and a group that gets nothing (many clinical trials fail to include a control group that gets no intervention). Comparing the first two groups shows us how much better the known treatment is that the placebo, and comparing the placebo group to the no treatment group shows us the placebo effect. Thiscomparison is important, since a change in symptoms or behavior could be due to spontaneous remission (the condition runs its course, or gets better due to some environmental change), or demand characteristics (the person intentionally or unintentionally “fakes” symptoms on either pretest or posttest). With the proper methodological controls, if the placebo group shows significantly more change than does the no treatment group, then we might have a placebo effect. The real treatment group must show an even more pronounced change for us to conclude that the treatment is more than a placebo effect.
The therapeutic use of placebos can make people feel better, but may not address the underlying problem. This can lead to a decrease in symptoms that warn of a problem, with the problem still existing, and possibly progressing. Therefore, dependence on placebos can be a bad thing if there is a strong physiological component directly causing the problem. However, problems that are predominantly psychological in nature can show significant benefit when treated with placebos. If our main goal is to make the person feel better, then placebos can be very useful, and with fewer side effects than we see with some other treatments.
