“The” Placebo Effect Proven?

[HuckleB]

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1130

"A recent study, as reported in the New Scientist, purports to catch the placebo effect in the act using functional MRI scanning. This is an interesting study, and does for the first time show a neurophysiological correlate to reported placebo decreases in pain reporting.

However, reporting of the study highlights, yet again, widespread misconceptions about the nature of placebo effects – specifically that there are many placebo effects, not one placebo effect. Any reference to “the” placebo effect is therefore misleading – it is a convenient short hand, but unfortunate given prevailing misconceptions.

What most people mean when they say “the” placebo effect is a real physiological effect that derives from belief in the effects of a treatment – a mind-over-matter effect. However, the placebo effect, as it is measured in clinical trials, has a very specific operational definition. It is any and all measured effects other than a physiological response to the treatment itself.

...

It must also be pointed out that measured placebo effects differ greatly depending on the disease and the outcome being studies. The greatest effect is for pain, typically from 25-35%. This makes sense in that pain is a subjective experience and subject to a host of modifying factors, such as mood and expectation. But also, it has been known for a long time that there exists in the body natural opioids called endorphins that bind to receptors and inhibit pain, the same way the most powerful pain killers do. Therefore there is a known physiological mechanism by which mental effects could inhibit pain.

..."

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A very good, relatively short, science-based piece on the subject. It's worth a read, IMO.

:hi:

[bemildred]

1. Yeah, I ran into that one somewhere recently, a story about it.

It seems obvious to me that the mind and body mutually affect each other, in very complicated and poorly understood ways. From my own direct experience if nothing else. And it seems very worthwhile to study that. Some of the things they can do (unreliably) with hypnosis make a good demonstration of the principle, as do various manifestations of mental illness. I thought the use of MRI to get some "concrete" evidence was a novel and interesting approach.

[HuckleB]

5. Certainly the knowledge we've gained (much of it through scans) about brain/CNS plasticity...

... makes the old "mind over matter" (or matter/mind over matter, if you choose) very visible on a physiological plane.

Specialists Study Brain Plasticity and Its Transformative Potential
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/588275

Our flexible friend
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/apr/07/brain-neuroscience-stroke-depression

Study Enhances Understanding Of Brain Plasticity And Motor Skills, Signaling Advancements For Future Rehab Practices
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/79141.php

The brain is an organ that just won’t be contained
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/04/09/2003440548

So much is going on in these "related" areas, although they may be much more than related.

Cheers.

[wuvuj]

2. FDA...the revolving door...

http://www.lef.org/LEFCMS/aspx/PrintVersionMagic.aspx?CmsID=116244


The Revolving Door

You may wonder why certain officials in the FDA would go to such extreme lengths to get a lethal drug like Ketek® approved.

Look no further than the gargantuan economic benefits drug companies reap when a patented compound like Ketek® receives the FDA seal of approval.

When we first exposed the revolving door of FDA employees going to work for companies they regulate, virtually no one believed us. Back in the 1980s, most Americans were deceived by FDA propaganda stating that the agency “is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety…of human drugs.”12

The harsh reality is that the FDA functions primarily to protect the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, not the public’s health. If anyone ever questioned this, look no further than the FDA’s attempts last year to ban the safest form of estrogen (estriol). The FDA has no qualms about publically stating that its ban on estriol was based on a petition filed by Wyeth, the maker of dangerous estrogen drugs like Premarin® and Prempro®.

There are a number of estrogen drugs that have not been shown to increase stroke or breast cancer risk.13 The FDA, however, has done nothing to remove Premarin® or Prempro®. Instead, the FDA openly seeks to protect Wyeth’s market share by denying American women access to natural estriol.

According to the FDA, “bioidentical hormone products are unsupported by medical evidence and are considered false and misleading by the agency.”14 The truth is that bioidentical hormones are far less expensive and pose a major competitive threat to Wyeth, ergo the FDA’s aggressive attempts to disallow them.

In a report issued by the Associated Press just last year, it was revealed that a record number of FDA employees are leaving the agency to go to work for pharmaceutical companies. According to the Associated Press, these FDA staffers are resigning in order to go into “the more lucrative side of the business…”15

[HuckleB]

4. If you would like to respond with a post that discusses the OP, please do.

If not, please start your own thread.

Thanks.

[Chemisse]

8. What does this have to do with the placebo effect? nt

[wuvuj]

3. The cancer establishment....

http://www.lef.org/LEFCMS/aspx/PrintVersionMagic.aspx?CmsID=116951


Earlier this year, one of the progressive oncologists we work with (Arnold Smith, MD) called me frantically excited. We had featured an article in Life Extension Magazine® about Dr. Smith’s success in reversing the course of advanced-stage lung cancer. A Life Extension® member suffering from advanced metastatic liver cancer contacted Dr. Smith. Even though this patient had already failed all conventional therapies, Dr. Smith was willing to design a comprehensive program utilizing our cancer treatment protocols, along with an individualized dose of an immune-boosting drug, interleukin-2.

This patient presented with CEA blood reading of 3,800 ng/mL. CEA stands for carcinoembryonic antigen, and is a highly accurate way of tracking visceral malignancies such as metastatic liver cancer. The CEA reading in healthy people is normally under 4.0 ng/mL, so the 3,800 reading in this patient was exceptionally high. Virtually everyone dies before their CEA reaches 7,000, which is where this patient was headed.
What About Those Who Have Already Had Failed Surgery, Chemo, Etc.?
Figure 1

In response to this multi-modal treatment approach designed by Dr. Smith using relatively non-toxic medications and nutrients, this patient’s CEA plummeted to 978 in two weeks. A month later, it had fallen further to 670. This patient reported feeling in excellent health. He was able to play golf and exercise and be normally active. The horrendous side effects associated with conventional systemic chemotherapy were not present. This patient returned to his home in southern California and is back to full time work.

This patient was pronounced “terminal” by his mainstream doctors. They had put him through every grueling toxic therapy approved by the FDA. All these conventional therapies failed. This patient’s willingness to travel out of state to Dr. Smith in Mississippi gave him a reprieve from what would be certain death. If it were not for the free publicity we gave to Dr. Arnold Smith, this person would not be alive!

[HuckleB]

6. Christopher Maloney is a quack.

[HuckleB]

7. Beyond the sugar pill: Are doctors misusing the placebo effect?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=beyond-the-sugar-pill-are-doctors-m-2010-02-18