OT: Time-honored 'placebo effect' doesn't really exist, study finds

[Guest guest]

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/10524IPlaceboEffect.html

 

This is off topic, but I wanted to pass it on becausen of the implications

for so much research.

 

Researchers and others often cite " placebo effect " to explain anything they

don't understand and don't want to spend the time, energy, and resources to

study more. " Placebo effect " often has been used by some to try to explain

why many alternative healing treatments work. According to the placebo

effect crowd, these alternative don't really work, aren't really effective,

it's just the patient's mind fooling him into believing something works.

 

Now comes a study that the placebo effect doesn't really exist for most

medications and treatments. The supposed exceptions are tests involving

subjective reporting of symptoms which can't be objectively verified - in

particular studies of the efficiency of pain relief treatments.

 

I personally wonder if it even exists in the case of studies on pain relief.

One would have to know exactly what was in the placebo pills. Supposedly

inert ingredients are used in placebos and to color and shape the placebo

pills to look like the medication being tested. For example, magnesium

compounds may be used as supposedly inert filler. Magnesium has pain

lowering properties for some cases of pain. Not all, but some cases of

pain. It has to do with Mg's effect on GABA, an inhibitory

neurotransmitter. If excitatory neurotransmitters predominate greatly over

inhibitory neurotransmitters, a touch can feel painful to a person.

Increase or enhance the inhibitory neurotransmitters in these people, and a

reduction in pain results. Also, one of the possible symptoms of Yin

Deficiency is an increase in pain. Some supposedly inert ingredients may be

Yin-tonic in nature, thus reducing pain in people whose pain (or at least

some of it) is due to Yin Deficiency.

 

Sometimes not understanding that so-called inert ingredients do have

properties can make some prescription drugs appear to be more effective than

they really are. A few years ago a pharmacuetical company announced that

testing for a new drug revealed that the drug was very effective. I forget

exactly what the drug was or what it was for. It was injected. I believe

it may have been to prevent blood clots. The thing is the " active "

ingredient, the drug being tested, was administered in a Mg base. Mg all by

itself has the property of preventing blood clots. Without knowing what was

used as the dummy drug in the test (did it too use Mg?), one cannot really

say that the drug being tested was responsible for the clot preventing

action. (I also have to wonder if the drug company knew about this effect

of Mg and purposely used it as a base for the drug being tested in order to

skew the test results in favor of the drug.)

 

Sometimes not realizing that so-called inert ingredients have properties can

make a drug appear less effective than it really is. For example, most

pills and capsules manufactured in the US use milk sugar as a filler or

binder. This is in spite of the fact that most of the US population (and

the population of the world) is lactose intolerant. The fact that some

individuals are lactose intolerant can skew the results of some testing, in

particular testing involving drugs for treating digestive system problems.

A lot of digestive system problems are due to individuals having problems

with milk. For example, some (not all) cases of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

are triggered by an intolerance or even an allergy to various components of

milk. Giving these individuals a medicine which uses milk in the form they

are bothered by is going to aggravate the IBS instead of relieving it.

Thus, a medicine which is effective may appear to be non-effective and even

cause problems.

 

There is a debate over the effectiveness of some generic drugs. The reason

that some generic drugs aren't as effective as the same drug produced by the

original company often may lie in the so-called inert ingredients used.

 

One reason that I prefer buying herbs in bulk instead of buying capsules is

the fillers (so-called inert ingredients) used in the capsules are not inert

in a lot of cases.

 

Getting back to the placebo effect. There are some ethical and moral

questions involving the withholding of potentially helpful treatment for

reason of testing. This is especially true if being in the placebo group

means being required to forego other treatments which are known to work.

 

It's good science to not jump automatically to the explanation that

something works simply because of a placebo effect. Ask if something else

could be happening besides a so-called placebo effect.

 

Victoria

 

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