the placebo effect
...nvoluntary conditioned reflex of the patient’s body, like conditioned reflexes. The functioning of the nervous system are responses to stimuli from the external or internal milieu. A sensorial stimulus comes from inside or outside the body, reaches a receptor and modifies the organic conditions or a vegetative response. The conditioned reflexes are acquired by the animals during their own lifetime. This represents what type of nervous system is capable of. In order for the conditioned responses to appear, they have to base upon unconditioned ones. The effects the placebos have on animals is that after giving the dog injections and several combinations of sound the dog will show hypertension even if adrenaline is injected instead of acetylcholine. If the dog’s blood pressure rises, there will be an reaction to adrenaline to injection. Since the animal receives a combination of a sound stimulus and an injection, the blood pressure keeps lowering. The body ignores the pharmacological action of the adrenaline, and obeys the hypotension signal in the central nervous system. Prescribing “sugar pills” rather than real medication has consequences for some patients. Many studies suggest that problems like pain and depression respond particularly well to placebos. Blood pressure, cholesterol concentration in the blood, and heart rate are also affected by placebos, as are warts. On average, about a third of people taking placebos in studies report a benefit (Damaris Christensen, Science News, Vol 159). Studies show that people’s perceptions of their treatment play an important role. The studies have also compared active treatment with both the placebo treatment and no treatment at all. Placebos are often used to test new treatments for high blood pressure, allergies and depression and some other mental disorders. The harm is low if patients briefly discontinu...