The Placebo Effect: Explanation for the General Public - Psychology

This report provides a comprehensive explanation of the placebo effect for the general public. It defines the placebo effect as anything in medical treatment that appears to be active but isn't, such as inactive pills or fake treatments. The report clarifies how placebos are used in clinical trials to understand the outcomes of new drugs, and how the expectation of a positive outcome can lead to positive results. It explores the nocebo effect, where negative expectations cause negative outcomes, and how these effects are linked to a person's beliefs and dosage. The report also highlights the use of placebos in psychological studies and their ability to alter brain activity, reduce pain, and influence conditions like depression and anxiety. Ethical considerations related to the use of placebos are discussed, along with their therapeutic applications, emphasizing how perception and assumptions influence the outcomes of treatment. The report concludes by summarizing the key aspects of the placebo effect, its impact on health, and its role in pharmaceutical interventions.

How Would You Explain The
Placebo Effect To A Member
Of The General Public
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
A placebo is regarded as anything which seems to be existing in medical treatments but
actually in real world it does not. It could be associated with taking ordinary pill or fake
treatments which are not related or doe not have any affect on physical, social or medical health
status of individuals (Meichenbaum and Lilienfeld, 2018). The above effect assist researcher in
understanding different types of effects which may have on a body due to administration of new
drug or treatment on a certain health condition. The report will focus on explaining the placebo
effect to a member of the general public.
MAIN BODY
Placebo have been regraded as a substance or any other kind of treatment which look
similar to daily medicine but actually it is actually an inactive version of medicine or treatment.
The person who is receiving such treatment, typically have no idea about the reality of substance
which are being taken. Sometime the placebo takes a form of sugar pill or can be liquid or
injections which are designed in such a way that they seems to look like a real treatment but it
does not have any affect on illness. The researcher often take help of placebo effect to effectively
understand the outcome of new drugs on a human body. For example, in a study, a group of
people are administered new drug for overcoming insomniac condition while half of the subjects
would get placebo. In such case, both the group of people will not be bale to differentiate among
real treatment or placebo. The scientific researcher then analyse the effects of drugs as well as
placebo on both group of people. It has been found that placebo can alter the way people feel
even if it does not have that capacity to react or act on disease. Experts have a notion that there is
a strong relationship among how strongly an individual expects to get results and whether the
same result have occurred. The more stronger the feeling is, it is more likely that the person will
eventually feels positive outcomes (Rozenkrantz and et.al., 2017). If people expects to have
negative outcomes from taking medicines then they soon starts to feel the same way. From such
scenario it is suggested that people have huge relationship with expectations and outcomes.
The alteration or modification in person's symptoms due to placebo is called as placebo
effect. The effects usually lasts for acute period of time, such effects are frequently thought to
alter body's spontaneous chemical ability which are responsible in lowering pain or getting
relieved from other symptoms. The effects may sometimes have negative consequences which
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may comprise of nausea, headaches, nervousness or constipation. Such unpleasant effects which
may takes place after receiving above effect are called nocebo effects. These two outcomes are
regarded as expectation effects which means that people who are facing such experiences may
show symptoms along with a line. The outcomes, thus as per researcher revolves around person's
believes and dosage of medicines. If an individuals is getting strong medicines then the person
starts to believe that they may have any possible side effects due to administration of drugs. In
real, it can never cause any symptoms or consequences directly instead it the belief system of a
person that alters the way in which they feel and act. Some people are found to have placebo
effect without taking any pill or some individuals starts to feel healthy only after consulting with
doctors (Planès and et.al., 2016). However, it is believed that the kind of placebo effect are
directly associated with level of confidence and believes a person have over doctor treatments or
drugs. The effect also aids in lowering certain symptoms which which in fact do not have nay
connection with certain disorder. Placebos have generally not seen to be included in clinical
medicines, the main reason behind such practice is that the patient should not get the idea about
giving a fake medicines because then it will no longer be effective and such activities would
prevent from provoking placebo effect. Such effects have been seen to only work when a certain
individual does not know that they are receiving a tablet or injection which does not have any
effect on their mind or mechanism of body.
Such effects are often used in clinical trials which further assist in answering whether and
how the treatment will work and what outcomes it may cause followed by categorising the type
of person which may find such treatment practice helpful. Those who are volunteering for
evaluating the effect of placebo are informed priorly and after getting an informed consent the
behaviour is monitored. Those individuals who receives placebo in medical studies extensively
helps in improving the way symptoms can be measured and compared. Many researchers have
recorded actual brain activity of in individuals who were getting such fake medications. Through
such study it was seen that the effects is for real which connects the body with brain and the pain
gets relieved. From various studies it was evidenced that expectation effects is real and patients
feelings as well as thoughts are responsible for showing acute term physical changes (Blease,
Bishop and Kaptchuk, 2017). The perception after taking a placebo gets changed and an
individuals who were for instance anxious and stressed felt calmed and relaxed due to drop of
stress hormone which are not directly related with placebo. The mind set of every person in this
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world basically expects that after taking prescribed medicines there condition will get settled.
The people who were suffering from mental health state did not get any major benefit from such
effects because people with Alzheimer tends to forget basic things which also involves in taking
medicines. The role of past experience and knowledge is vital to make placebo effect work
efficiently, thus such patients gets less relief from pain medicines. Another factor which is
involved imaging of brain which have positively found to alter neural activity of individuals. The
area which are found to be implicated are spinal cord, stem, and some part of brain. Strong
placebo response is often linked with high opioid and dopamine receptor activity.
One of the major advantage of placebo is in medical as well as in psychological studies
which allow a researcher to eliminate the effects that expectation may have on possible results.
Due to the ability to make alteration in body, the placebo were used in a study as a control which
showed positive response. The capability of placebo in minimising the pain refers to as placebo
analgesia. They may work either by releasing of endorphins or it may potentially change the
perception of a person for pain (Louhiala, Hemilä and Puustinen, 2015). The above effect is
majorly seen in treating depression as well as anxiety condition due to impact of taking placebo.
It has been suggested that 85% of cough got reduced with the treatment of placebo. The issue of
erectile dysfunction were also resolve when a study were conducted using three groups. The first
group were provided with proper medicine for specified issue, the second group received placebo
or an actual medicines while last group received placebo. At the end it was found that, erectile
dysfunction was improved in all groups irrespective of the fact that some group of people were
getting starch tablets (Is the placebo effect real? 2020). The question which are raised are all
related to ethical issues which focus on directing that doctors are misleading patient by providing
fake treatments and medicines. Some arguments states that such practices may end up in placing
fraud charges on doctors, though irrespective of such debates and arguments current researcher
are finding way though which they can harness more powers which lie behind placebo.
Physicians have access to prescribe such treatments and in many psychological cases it is highly
observed that people are receiving placebo to lower their symptoms of pain and stress. The
therapeutic use of placebo is still in controversy and may vary from region to region. The success
of placebo effect has been purely based on what perception they have while taking the
medication and how they assumed to feel. In some cases, doctors were found to take dose to
reduce anti inflammatory medications which are mixed with the combination of placebo to
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effectively treat psoriasis. The effects have evidently shown to have positive outcomes on large
number of health states and have been extensively utilised as pharmaceutical interventions
(Friesen and Blease, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the placebo is detailed as anything which
appears to be active in medical attention but in reality it does not. It could be connected with
picking trivial pill or false treatments which are not accompanied or does not have any impact on
social, physical or medical well being of individuals. The change or adjustment in person's
symptoms due to placebo is called as placebo effect. The nocebo effect is opposite of placebo
effect which takes place when negative expectations leads in causing negative outcomes. The
expectation effect shows how perception and behaviour alterations changes the way treatment
can be received. All such effects have high possibility to make possible changes in disease
symptoms like erectile dysfunction, pain, depression and many more.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Blease, C. R., Bishop, F. L., & Kaptchuk, T. J. (2017). Informed consent and clinical trials:
where is the placebo effect?. Bmj, 356, j463.
Friesen, P., & Blease, C. (2018). Placebo effects and racial and ethnic health disparities: an
unjust and underexplored connection. Journal of medical ethics, 44(11), 774-781.
Louhiala, P., Hemilä, H., & Puustinen, R. (2015). Impure placebo is a useless
concept. Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 36(4), 279-289.
Meichenbaum, D., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2018). How to spot hype in the field of psychotherapy: A
19-item checklist. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 49(1), 22.
Planès, S. & et.al., (2016). The nocebo effect of drugs. Pharmacology research &
perspectives, 4(2), e00208.
Rozenkrantz, L. & et.al., (2017). Placebo can enhance creativity. PloS one, 12(9).
Online
Is the placebo effect real?. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306437
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