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Ah, Placebo! From Issue #16 Despite their unscientific reliance on flavoring, coloring, and alcohol, patent medicines often actually worked. How so remains a mystery, one known today as the "placebo effect." Up through the 1940s, American doctors often handed out sugar pills to induce placebo responses. Although discounted in the era of "real" medicine, placebo effects have been shown to be as strong as ever; so strong that one test of new drugs is based on whether they outperform placebos. For controlling pain, placebos are said to be up to 60 percent as effective as most active medications like aspirin and codeine . Placebo treatments have proven effective cross-culturally, and have been applied to a wide range of health problems: Hair Growth: Forty-two percent of balding men taking a placebo either maintained or increased the amount of hair on their heads. Asthma: Smelling a placebo helped asthmatic children in Venezuela increase their lung function by 33 percent. Allergies: In a Japanese study, people exposed to fake poison ivy developed real rashes. Joint Repair: Doctors in Texas studying knee surgery found similar levels of pain relief whether surgery was real or feigned. Pain: When told a heavy object was about to hit their foot, people in a study exhibited the kind of brain activity researchers associate with pain perception. (Source: New York Times, 10/13/98; go here for full story) |