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Placebo effect

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anthony

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The placebo effect has been around for hundreds of years, however; this page is about concentrating its purpose and use for psychological terms. Unfortunately, to cover the psychological aspects, we must also explore other relations that placebo is used to form an accurate opinion. Let me just say, whether you believe in placebo or not, it exists, it seems more psychological at most, though the real importance, is just to understand what it is and why its used.

What Is The Placebo Effect?
Defined:
A placebo is defined as any therapeutic procedure, or component of, which is given (1) deliberately to have an effect, or (2) unknowingly and has an effect on a symptom, syndrome, disease or patient but which is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated. The placebo is also used as an adequate control in research. The placebo effect is defined as the changes produced by placebos.

It is a control mechanism for the purpose of study or statistics, that may be nothing, or may be a different form of the treatment being studied. It is a counter balance per se, and what is being countered depends on how placebo is used, i.e. nothing, trickery (sugar pill) or alternative such as therapy indifference or active ingredient within a pharmacology (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) vs. Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (EMDR)). What is known, is that it is psychological if nothing / trickery, or it is the difference between an alternative used / combination with psychological.

Examples are best I believe. A group of 20 people have major difficulty sleeping. Split the group equally. A sleeping tablet is being tested. So all 20 are given a tablet that looks identical, smell, taste, etc, however; 10 of them are fake, i.e. no chemical to help sleep (sugar, headache tablet, etc). The next day, 12 people come in and say they slept all night, first time in a long time. How can that be, when only 10 actual sleeping tablets where dispensed? Of the 10 who had the real tablet, 8 slept all night long, two still didn't sleep well. That means 4 of those who had a sugar pill (example) slept all night long with nothing more than the thought that they had taken a sleeping tablet. That is the placebo effect in its simplest form.

How It Works

Instead of reinventing the wheel, this article says it best: For ordinarily healthy people, most sicknesses are "self-limiting," which is a fancy way of saying that they go away by themselves. Colds and headaches are the examples with which we are most familiar. Many of the upsets of babies and small children are self-limiting; this is the origin of what must be the most common "prescription" of the pediatrician - "Call me again in the morning" - by which time the problem is usually gone.

Theories

There are two primary applications as to why placebo has its effect, being the expectancy theory and classic conditioning.

Expectancy Theory

This theory which has gained much ground over the years works because the recipient expects it to work. Hence, expectancy theory. This theory combines with the fundamental basis of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), that the mind can change and induce specific neuron activity and invoke change within specific areas of the brain and body through nothing other than thought. Put simply, the context of beliefs and values shape the brain processes related to perception and emotion and, ultimately, mental and physical health.

This can be either positive or negative.

Classic Conditioning

A very simple example explains this the best I believe, known to many across the globe as "Pavlov's Dogs". If at each feeding time you ring a bell as you dispense your dogs food, you will find that after a short time, if you ring that bell the dog will immediately think it is getting fed, thus begin salivating, i.e. you have conditioned the dog to expect food when the bell is rung.

In essence, depending on the type of placebo dispensed, i.e. physical or psychological, some types could encompass both a conditioned response as well as psychologically expected response!

Placebo Wait-List Method

It is common within psychological studies that a wait-list be used as the placebo, meaning that whilst half the group is being treated with the psychotherapy studied, the other half have been told they will be done in 12 weeks. One study of mention, in relation to CBT in children and adolescents with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), noted a 42% improvement for those on the wait-list at the end of the defined period no longer meeting PTSD diagnostic criterion. So nothing more than time, and 42% no longer has symptoms to meet PTSD. Reading several studies, it was discovered up-to 6 months after upon wait-list, over 80% of subjects no longer met the criterion for PTSD - through nothing other than time.

Whilst such studies are subject to significant misdiagnoses of PTSD in the first instance vs. Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), a demonstration of equality for those in the treatment and those on the wait-list still reflect a placebo effect occurring, or more, an understanding of the placebo effect itself.

Psychological Placebo Flaw

There is one characteristic flaw within any placebo treatment used in psychological treatments, and that is the therapist / treating physicians are aware of the placebo, thus their characteristic humanity can divulge an allegiance to one method or another, i.e. they don't believe in what they are delivering, as they know its a placebo vs. those who are using the actual tested method. This human trait can then reflect within the results as unknown positive or negatives.
 
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