The body is a wondrous instrument, just making it think a patient is getting better can actually bring about positive results, oftentimes better then real prescription drugs. It’s for that reason that a new study reveals an increasing number of doctor’s are prescribing placebo “drugs” in place of the real thing.

While typically used for research purposes placebo drug prescriptions (drugs with no active ingredients) are becoming more commonplace and surprisingly working very effectively.

During one study the placebo was simply a matter of telling hotel employees they were getting a good workout when on the clock, that news was enough for them to lose weight while their counterparts at work remained the same weight or gained.

In a second study participants were told their food was high in calories and therefore filled up faster, thereby eating less than the low-cal food group.

According to the Wall Street Journal the placebo effect didn’t just affect metabolism, doctors also used it to treat depression. In another case doctors gave patients a drug for irritable bowel syndrome whch they were told didn’t have any active ingredients but instead worked on the “mind.”

An expert notes of the study:

“Evidence is that placebo changes not the underlying biology of an illness, but the way a person experiences or reacts to an illness.”

As this particular study and others surface doctors are not only prescribing placebo pills more readily, they are also attempting to determine what underlying effect allows the drugs to work so well on the human mind.

Would you care if you’re doctor was prescribing you sugar pills if they appeared to be working?

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

Study: Doctors Prescribing Placebos At Increasing Rates is a post from: The Inquisitr

Placebo’s are often used in research studies to test how new drugs work in relation to no drugs at all,  however a recent asthma study used drugs to determine how the actual placebo effect plays a part in Asthma cases.

The study used two different placebo treatments along with a standard albuterol bronchodilator and reached two conclusions: Placebos have no effect on lung function and they were just as effective as albuterol in relieving discomfort in people with “self-described” asthma symptoms.

In a news release  lead author Michael Wechsler, MD, associate director of the Asthma Research Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School said:

“We were trying to understand whether a placebo effect exists and, if so, whether it was similar with regard to both objectively and subjectively reported measures, and whether similar effects could be observed using different types of placebo.”

The research project included 39 patients who were suffering from chronic asthma, some patients were given albuterol, some were given a fake albuterol inhaler and others were given sham acupuncture or no intervention at all.  After treatments each ashtma sufferer was then given a different type of treatment to determine which steps worked for them (albuterol, placebo, sham event/no intervention), while each patient was subjected to 12 visits to ensure accuracy of testing.

According to the research, albuterol inhaler use increased FEV1 (maximum forced expiratory volume in one second0 by 20% while the placebo tests both resulted in a 7% increases in FEV1.

According to Wechsler:

“Since there was no difference between either of the placebo treatments and the placebo ‘control’ [no treatment], we can report that there was no objective placebo effect with regard to change in lung function.”

Researchers Use Placebo Effect To Study Asthma is a post from: The Inquisitr

There is an 800 pound elephant in the boardroom of all the big pharma corporations and it consists of nothing more than milk sugar in the shape of a pill – otherwise known as The Placebo. This little pill has drug companies running scared because it is beginning to cure people better than all the fancy new drugs that they are testing and in some cases is doing better than long established drugs.

From 2001 to 2006 the percentage of new drugs cut from development during Phase II trials, which is where the new drugs are first tested against placebos, rose by 20 percent. When it came to the Phase III trials increased by 11 percent, mainly because of poor showing against placebos. Even with all the millions poured into R&D by the drug companies the US Food and Drug Administration approved only 19 first of their kind drugs in 2007. This was the fewest drugs ever approved by the FDA since 1983 and this didn’t change in 2008 which only saw 24 drugs approved.

Even when it comes to the old standby drugs like Prozac are failing in more recent tests to prove themselves to be any better that those sugar pills. It was also found out through two extensively analyzed antidepressant trials that there has been a dramatic increase in the placebo response since the 1980s. Drug developers don’t believe that it is a matter of the drugs getting weaker but more that the placebo effect is getting stronger.

In serious studies of this placebo effect researchers are finding that the body’s response to certain types of medication is in constant flux and can be affected by conditioning, beliefs, expectations of treatment, and social cues. William Potter, now VP at Merck, found that geographical variations could affect the placebo effect.

For instance, the geographic variations in trial outcome that Potter uncovered begin to make sense in light of discoveries that the placebo response is highly sensitive to cultural differences. Anthropologist Daniel Moerman found that Germans are high placebo reactors in trials of ulcer drugs but low in trials of drugs for hypertension—an undertreated condition in Germany, where many people pop pills for herzinsuffizienz, or low blood pressure. Moreover, a pill’s shape, size, branding, and price all influence its effects on the body. Soothing blue capsules make more effective tranquilizers than angry red ones, except among Italian men, for whom the color blue is associated with their national soccer team—Forza Azzurri!

Source – Wired :: Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Big Pharma’s biggest scare – Placebos cure better than their new drugs is a post from: The Inquisitr