The Placebo Phenomenon

Post by jrogers65 » Sun, Dec 23, 2012, 8:35 PM UTC

iskander wrote: post #28

psykotic wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> inject someone in pain with morphine. do it repeatedly over time. once, without telling them, inject them with saline instead. their brain will respond as if it was morphine and continue to block the pain. I must admit I have a very hard time believing this exact claim as written. Do you have any sources?

Some related studies: 'Partial antagonism of placebo analgesia by naloxone' ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6308540 ) -- no actual morphine was ever adminstered, only a regimen of saline injections, whose placebo effect is apparently achieved by the release of endogenous opioids. 'A comprehensive review of the placebo effect'( http://pharmacology.ucsd.edu/graduate/courseinfo/placebartic... ): "placebos have actu…

In case you missed it, endocannabinoids (CB1 agonism, in particular) appear to account for the other half of placebo analgesia:

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v17/n10/full/nm.2435.html

Post by MDS100 » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

jrogers65 wrote: post #40

tokenadult wrote: post #2

From the article: "Kaptchuk . . . doesn’t argue that you can simply 'think yourself better.' 'Sham treatment won’t shrink tumors or cure viruses,' he says." That's an honest statement and an important point, because many publications with Kaptchuk's name on them are overinterpreted to reach the conclusion that there is a "real" placebo effect that can actually cure disease. In fact, there is no strong evidence of tha…

> From the article: "Kaptchuk . . . doesn’t argue that you can simply 'think yourself better.' 'Sham treatment won’t shrink tumors http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22287549 > process by which stress may potentiate carcinogenesis and how reducing body stress may prevent cancer growth and progression. The opioid peptide β-endorphin plays a critical role in bringing the stress axis to a state of homeostasis http://www…

You should read you sources. These are not hard data. It's guesswork.

Re: The Placebo Phenomenon

Re: The Placebo Phenomenon