Ulc school

Science Subject:
the placebo effect

Let’s have a fun trip

 the placebo effect
In 1996, 56 volunteers took part in a study , to test a new painkiller
called Trivaricaine.
On each subject, one index finger was covered in the new painkiller,
while the other remained untouched. Then, both were squeezed in
painful clamps.
The subjects reported that the treated finger hurt less than the untreated
one.
This shouldn't be surprising,

2
 WHOA!

except Trivaricaine wasn't actually a painkiller!!!!

just a fake concotion with no pain-easing properties
at all.
What made the students so
sure this dummy drug had
worked???
You can give a brief description of the topic you
want to talk about here. For example, if you
want to talk about Mercury, you can say that it’s
the smallest planet in the entire Solar System
 The answer lies in the
placebo effect
an unexplained phenomenon
wherein drugs, treatments, and therapies that aren't
supposed to have an effect,
and are often fake,
miraculously make people feel better.
 Doctors have used the term
placebo since the 1700s
when they realized the power of
fake drugs to improve people's
symptoms. These were
administered when proper drugs
weren't available, or if someone
imagined they were ill.
 In fact, the word
placebo means "I shall
please" in Latin,
“This is a quote, words full of wisdom that
someone important said and can make the
reader get inspired.”

—SOMEONE FAMOUS
hinting at a history of placating troubled patients.
Placebos had to mimic the real treatments in
order to be convincing,
so they took the form of sugar pills,
water-filled injections,
and even sham surgeries.
Soon, doctors realized that duping people in this
way had another use:
in clinical trials.
By the 1950s, researchers were using placebos
as a standard tool
to test new treatments.
To evaluate a new drug, for instance,
half the patients in a trial might receive the
real pill.
The other half would get a placebo that looked
the same.
Since patients wouldn't know whether they'd
received the real thing or a dud,
the results wouldn't be biased,
researchers believed.
Then, if the new drug showed a significant
benefit compared to the placebo,
it was proved effective.
Nowadays, it's less common to use placebos this
way because of ethical concerns.
If it's possible to compare a new drug against an
older version,
or another existing drug,
that's preferable to simply giving someone no
treatment at all,
especially if they have a serious ailment.
In these cases, placebos are often used as a control to fine-tune the trial
so that the effects of the new versus the old or alternative drug
can be precisely compared.
But of course, we know the placebos exert their own influence, too.
Thanks to the placebo effect,
patients have experienced relief from a range of ailments,
including heart problems,
asthma,
and severe pain,
even though all they'd received was a fake drug or sham surgery.
 We're still trying to understand how.
Some believe that instead of being real,
the placebo effect is merely confused with other factors,
like patients trying to please doctors by falsely reporting improvements.
On the other hand,
researchers think that if a person believes a fake treatment is real,
their expectations of recovery actually do trigger physiological factors
that improve their symptoms.
Placebos seem to be capable of causing measurable change in blood pressure,
heart rate,
and the release of pain-reducing chemicals, like endorphins.
That explains why subjects in pain studies often say placebos ease their discomfort.
Placebos may even reduce levels of stress hormones,
like adrenaline,
which can slow the harmful effects of an ailment.
So shouldn't we celebrate the placebo's bizarre benefits?
Not necessarily.
 If somebody believes a fake treatment has cured them,
they may miss out on drugs or therapies that are proven to
work.
Plus, the positive effects may fade over time,
and often do.
Placebos also cloud clinical results,
making scientists even more motivated to discover
how they wield such power over us.
Despite everything we know about the human body,
there are still some strange and enduring mysteries,
like the placebo effect.
So what other undiscovered marvels might we contain?
It's easy to investigate the world around us
and forget that one of its most fascinating subjects
lies right behind our eyes.
THANK YOU