Tag Archives: placebo

Expertise and placebo research in Italy

By Health, Notes from Bob Cummings, , , , , , ,

Roman Forum (picture courtesy of Flickr.com user Mshai)

I remember walking around the city of Rome many years ago and seeing the impressive stone ruins – the remains of government buildings in the old Roman Forum – and thinking that they really were advanced for that time period. The Roman Forum “has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history.”¹

In my previous post I looked at an almost lighthearted but curious case of how extensive knowledge of anatomy commonplace in Italy seems to result in a winter disease unique to them. This gives an example of how thought can have an impact on health.

But in all seriousness, Italy is very much at the forefront of some significant research on a mind-body connection. For example, a search on “placebo AND research AND italy” (in the search bar) at pubmed.gov (which stores abstracts containing the results of clinical studies) yields 1,901 results.

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Thinking and effective exercise

By Health, Notes from Bob Cummings, , , , , ,

Picture courtesy of Flickr user Jacobunny

When thought meets exercise, exercise is more beneficial.

“A particular mind-set or belief about one’s body or health may lead to improvements in disease symptoms as well as changes in appetite, brain chemicals and even vision, several recent studies have found, highlighting how fundamentally the mind and body are connected” writes Shirley S. Wang in an article in the Wall Street Journal today.

A 1999 study conducted by James A. Blumenthal, PhD at the Duke University Medical Center found that older patients with major depression experienced therapeutic benefits from an exercise program equal to what others received from antidepressant medication.

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Thinking about the placebo effect

By Health, Notes from Bob Cummings, , , , ,

If the placebo effect is the result of an expectation in thought, if we took the placebo out of the equation and retained only the thought, would that still help? If the placebo has no intrinsic medicinal value, isn’t the effect from a placebo already the result of the thought connected with it?

A placebo is a non-medicated pill, or sugar pill, often used to set a benchmark in research to determine the effect of a drug. Patients often experience positive therapeutic effects from a placebo and this is thought to be the result of their thought that it will help them. This is called the “placebo effect”.

I’ve read that larger placebos have been found to be more effective than smaller ones and taking two placebos more effective than one. Also, that placebos were more effective when given to a patient by a doctor than when they were self-administered. All of this even though they have no active ingredient.

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