I'm always astounded when the placebo effect is talked about as though it were a nuisance...it's such an incredibly and sadly closed minded way of seeing things. Of course we need a new name...that makes it central...we are healing machines!
Placebo effect is one of my favorite interests. I've said again and again, we need to learn how to harness the power of placebo because it is, essentially, nothing other than our own minds power to heal our whole beings. Pharma and many scientists want to dismiss it. Placebo is experienced as a nuisance in research. It's clear to me the phenomena is part of our human heritage and rather than find it an annoying thing that gets in the way of drug making, we should put more effort into learning how to use it within ourselves without the props!
This paper is originally from Nexus Magazine. It is all over the net, so I'm assuming it's okay to use the fair use clause in copyright law and present this here for educational purposes. I found it here. I think this paper suggests we can to some extent consciously use the placebo effect to our... Continue Reading →
We need to learn how to harness the placebo effect.It's our inner healer at work. From Ode Magazine: In the lab, Takeo couldn't stand it anymore. The itching was driving him crazy. He watched his right arm turn red and wondered why he’d decided to take part in this experiment. He knew he was allergic... Continue Reading →
From Medscape: Initial Treatment With Placebo Not Harmful to Teens Participating in Antidepressant Trials, Study Suggests January 30, 2009 — Initial treatment with placebo in teens participating in antidepressant trials is not harmful, and in fact, adolescents who receive placebo prior to active treatment fare as well as those who receive immediate active treatment, a... Continue Reading →
GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of lamotrigine (Lamictal), the antiepileptic drug used widely for bipolar disorder, happily hid clinical trial results which found Lamictal was no better than a placebo. Given recent findings about how often pharmaceutical companies selectively push positive results to publication in medical journals while suppressing negative results, this can hardly be considered a surprise. It is nonetheless instructive to examine how the published data on Lamictal paint a much rosier picture of the drug's efficacy compared to unpublished data....
Is it just human nature that makes us suckers to big pharma? Granted this "skill" can be used for great good too. Our minds are very powerful.
