Posted by chemist on May 12, 2004, at 11:41:37
In reply to The Placebo Effect Interesting, posted by Stryker88 on May 11, 2004, at 5:58:54
> I just am learning about his so called Placebo effect, apparently it accounts for most of our medication success, once I find out about this Placebo effect I wonder if it stops working
neat, isn't it? i've read the figure to be as high as 70% - years ago - but haven't followed what's been uncovered in recent years. as to once we find out about it, do things stop working, my guess is that if the effect was due to the placebo effect entirely, probably yes. if not - for instance, you don't hear many stories about benzodiazapines inducing anxiety (although it can happen) - then you're looking at a drug that does truly exert a strong effect on one's system....an interesting aside, thanks to your post: i wonder about the barrage of posts related to effexor and/or celexa/lexapro. many people took effexor and it didn't seem to help, yet they are apparently undergoing some very nasty withdrawl symptoms. clearly, one can ingest a drug that actually does do something - not what it is intended to do, perhaps - that makes stopping the drug difficult. but can the placebo effect be ``used'' to help people wean themselves from things like effexor (i use this as an example because of the seemingly terrible withdrawl experienced by many posters) IF they are informed that IF you take a drug AND it does not work THEN it was useless to begin with and THUS there will be no problem with withdrawl BECAUSE you were essentially taking nothing to begin with? thoughts? all the best, chemist
poster:chemist
thread:345631
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040510/msgs/346141.html