Pain, Olfaction, Pheromones, and Synesthesia

Placebos

The "Breaking Blind" Phenomenon 

A placebo is a drug that has no pharmacological effects. It is often referred to as a ‘sugar pill’. In clinical trials, there is an experimental arm and a placebo-controlled arm. The experimental arm (or experimental group) receives the active drug treatment while the placebo-controlled arm (or control group) receives the placebo. When you get better from the actual active chemical within the drug, this is called the therapeutic effect or pharmacological effect. When you get better just from that fact that you are taking a drug, this is called the placebo effect. Just by acknowledging that you are being “medically” treated with drugs that are commonly believed to help, could in fact improve your symptoms -- and this is how powerful the placebo effect can be. 

For example, years of data analysis has shown that the difference between the chemical effect and the placebo effect in depression is actually quite small.  People experience symptom improvement in depression from placebo almost as much as they do from antidepressants. This data analysis took all of the research into account -- research that has been published and unpublished (the research that the pharmaceutical companies didn’t want the public to see).  Antidepressants can be seen merely as active placebos -- that is, they have little therapeutic effect with powerful and very noticeable side effects. 

I honestly don't think we should be testing drugs against placebos because of how powerful and confounding the placebo effect really is. For example, a lot of groups in clinical trials taking the drug/placebo “break blind” -- meaning they figure out what they are taking. If you were told that you needed this medicine to get better, and you took the pill and experienced no side effects, then you would probably figure out that you took the placebo. This could actually make your symptoms get worse. Your mentality is that you need the active drug to get better, and because you didn't get it you will get worse, and so you probably will. The reverse has also proven to be true. If you take the pill, and then start to experience side effects, you'll probably figure out that you took the active drug and you may feel relieved that you received the active medication, that you will get better from this treatment, and so you probably will. The doctors can also break blind by seeing patients experience these side effects. 

  

If any of the following information stirs any interest for you, please check out Irving Kirsch’s book The Emperor's New Drugs.

DISCLAIMER: If you or anyone you know is taking a prescriptive psychiatric medication for stress, anxiety, depression, or any other reason deemed appropriate by the prescribing physician, alteration or discontinuation of the drug(s) is NOT recommended. Discontinuation or alteration of prescriptive medications can be life-threatening and can only be done under the authority and supervision of a licensed medical doctor!