Placebo Worksheet
Zack Reiter
Tanya Vickers
Biology 1010
January 16, 2017
Placebo Worksheet (Part 1)
A placebo is something that is meant to fool people into thinking it is something else in order to cause a positive outcome, or test how well the real thing works in comparison. For example, during studies involving how well a new drug works for a certain condition, volunteers will either be given a sugar pill (placebo) or the actual thing so that researchers can better understand how well the treatment works.
A nocebo is the same as a placebo except that it usually results in a negative outcome. This is due to the fact that the expectations of it are more negatively portrayed. For example, a person may be given a sugar pill then be told that it causes many …show more content…
A team of researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany tested this by injecting rats with Cyclosporine A while also feeding them sweetened water, the Cyclosporine A worked as it should and weakened the rats immune system. After a while they began to only give the rats the sweet drink without administering any Cyclosporine. The rats immune systems were still compromised, which meant that their bodies associated the drink with a weakened immune system. The study was then done on humans using Cyclosporine A and a strawberry milkshake. After a while the volunteers were administered a fake pill, which contained no drug, along with the same milkshake. Their immune systems were still compromised, although not as much as they had been with the real …show more content…
Although, the study does show that knowingly taking placebos did cause a reduction in pain, it also states that these people were on pain medications for much time before taking them. In Cure in the Mind, we see many examples of how taking pills before taking a placebo will ultimately cause the body to act as if it was taking the actual pill. So even though the people knew they were taking placebos, the reason that they worked is most likely due to the fact that their bodies were conditioned to taking pain pills so much that the fake pills were mistaken by their immune systems to be the real
Tanya Vickers
Biology 1010
January 16, 2017
Placebo Worksheet (Part 1)
A placebo is something that is meant to fool people into thinking it is something else in order to cause a positive outcome, or test how well the real thing works in comparison. For example, during studies involving how well a new drug works for a certain condition, volunteers will either be given a sugar pill (placebo) or the actual thing so that researchers can better understand how well the treatment works.
A nocebo is the same as a placebo except that it usually results in a negative outcome. This is due to the fact that the expectations of it are more negatively portrayed. For example, a person may be given a sugar pill then be told that it causes many …show more content…
A team of researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany tested this by injecting rats with Cyclosporine A while also feeding them sweetened water, the Cyclosporine A worked as it should and weakened the rats immune system. After a while they began to only give the rats the sweet drink without administering any Cyclosporine. The rats immune systems were still compromised, which meant that their bodies associated the drink with a weakened immune system. The study was then done on humans using Cyclosporine A and a strawberry milkshake. After a while the volunteers were administered a fake pill, which contained no drug, along with the same milkshake. Their immune systems were still compromised, although not as much as they had been with the real …show more content…
Although, the study does show that knowingly taking placebos did cause a reduction in pain, it also states that these people were on pain medications for much time before taking them. In Cure in the Mind, we see many examples of how taking pills before taking a placebo will ultimately cause the body to act as if it was taking the actual pill. So even though the people knew they were taking placebos, the reason that they worked is most likely due to the fact that their bodies were conditioned to taking pain pills so much that the fake pills were mistaken by their immune systems to be the real