Ritva Kurittu Wrote:
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>
> > Thus, it is entirely possible that a strong
> > belief that a particular substance is a pain
> > killer and/or a medicine will induce an
> enhanced
> > reaction of those natural processes we
> already
> > have to produce a placebo effect. In my
> > opinion,there is a limit to what a placebo
> can do.
>
> Yes, but it is amazing, that in a blind test, the
> naxolone blocks the painkilling effect, since the
> patient does not know about the naxolone, but is
> expecting the painkiller to kick in. It cannot
> therefore be a question of pure belief, can it?
No.No. the patient expectation is that the water is a pain killer, this belief induces his/her body to produce enkephalins and these produce a real analgesic effect. The experimenter, Then, in order to prove that the placebo effect had
in fact worked via the patient's production of enkephalins, injected naloxone without telling the patient what it was and saw that the pain returned due to the stripping of the opiate receptors. The belief produced enkephalins.
>
>
> > We read all the time about the tragic
> consequences
> > of people who die of cancer or AIDS because
> they
> > refused medical treatment and relied on
> apricot
> > pits, coffee enemas, ozone therapy, shark
> > cartilage therapy, and a myriad of other
> > "remedies" which could only function through
> a
> > placebo effect.
>
>
> Yes, I agree. But that is another debate
> altogether.
>
>
> >
> > The really, really interesting research area
> in
> > this is how we can reliably produce a
> desired
> > placebo effect in any patient upon command.
>
>
> Hmmm, if you can solve that, then you have solved
> the mystery of the human mind. It might not be
> tomorrow, though.
That's for sure, If I were a young scientist starting out-- this would be the most rewarding kind of research one could do. If we really, really understood how the placebo effect works and how to produce the desired effect at will-- we would be able to take a big leap forward in medicine IMHO
Bernard
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> Edited 1 times. Last edit at 03/19/05 06:01PM by
> ritva.
