All about the Placebo Effect

The placebo effect has revealed that real as well as fake drugs are doing great amount of good in the asthmatics. The real drugs though, had a great amount of physical effect on the lungs. The strong effect made them believe that they have an improved breathing without taking the real drug and they did not notice a lot of improvement as monitored by the breathing test.

Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk, study co-author and an associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, says that there is no big change in breathing in the asthmatics due to placebo. What change is their experience, understanding and perceptions of the real drug. He adds that the treatment modalities are strong and effective. He noted that placebo is making people feel excellent as much as an active drug makes them feel.

Giving a dummy or sugar pill elevates their mood. Placebo can't treat diseases like cancer but, can give a relief from pain, brings down the blood pressure and also ease any gastrointestinal issue.

The study rules out the real drug's effect in comparison to fake drug. The study was made keeping in mind two areas: the actual effect and perceived effect.

The researchers looked at 39 patients suffering from asthma and randomly treated them with an albuterol asthma inhaler which is the moist common treatment for asthma, a placebo inhaler and a fake (sham) acupuncture treatment. Some sessions went sans any treatment.

In their visits they were subjected to the mentioned approaches in their visits. Each time a test was taken to check their exhaling abilities. The visits were made 3 to 7 days apart. In all 12 visits were made.

The results showed that due to the albuterol inhaler, the exhaling was improved by 20% while, the other modalities showed 7% improvement. The patients felt that all the modalities equally improved their breathing (Albuterol inhaler by 50%, fake inhaler by 45% and sham acupuncture by 46%). While doing nothing at all improved exhaling by 21%.

Dr. Len Horovitz who is a pulmonary specialist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City, feels that there are several questions that surround these things. He questions the reliability in the patients in context with their report of bettering of the symptoms. He also raises his eyebrows on the question that if the doctor should stop if the patient notices comfort. He really wants to figure out if the doctors are doing good to help their patients feel good.

The study authors too, expressed their agreement on theories mentioned here about the placebo effect. There is a great amount of gap between the self- reports by the asthma patients and their lung functions and thus, the researchers believed that for an optimal care of the asthmatics, the doctors should not believe the self assessments of the patients and should always test their lung functions.

The author also added that to rely solely on the subjective outcomes is unreliable.

The study has found a place in the July 14 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine funded this study.