Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Just some FYI stuff on placebo response:
Response to placebos varies widely, from lows of 15% or less right up to 100%.
Surgical procedures generate placebo effects. In one study, 40% of patients who underwent disc surgery for back pain problems who were found not to
have disc disease at the time of operation had complete relief of their symptoms postoperatively.
Placebo effects demonstrate time-effect and peak-effect behavior, dose-response, and other characteristics of real drugs. They also cause side effects such as
drowsiness, headache, nervousness, insomnia, and nausea.
Yellow capsules tend to be viewed as more stimulatory, while white pills tend to be seen as analgesics and narcotics. Injections may have greater effects than
oral agents.
Placebos can have adverse effects, including that of making symptoms worse. In one study, 70% of subjects told that an electric current was being applied to
their scalp (when it was not) experienced headaches.
Even therapeutic agents have greater effects when patients expect benefits as compared to when they do not. Nor is this phenomenon a subjective one.
Asthmatic subjects in one trial, for example, showed twice the reduction in airway resistance when given a bronchodilator (a drug known to reduce airway
resistance by dilating the bronchial tree of passages in the lungs) that they were told would have such an effect as compared to when they were told the
therapy would have the opposite result.
Positive expectations of physicians and others involved in a patient's therapy are similarly associated with better outcomes, of active treatments as well as of
placebos. In one double-blind study comparing anti-hypertensive agents, just the physician learning prematurely that a new drug was working as well as others
(instead of better) was followed by an increase in measured blood pressures for all subjects after that point in the trial.
What I find most interesting of all is that the VAST majority of people, when confronted with this information, will absolutely swear that THEY could never be fooled by a placebo response!!!! What really sucks about the placebo response is that it disappears as soon as the person realizes it's all in their head
What a shame people can't teach themselves to harness this kind of brain power without taking a little pill or injection.......
Response to placebos varies widely, from lows of 15% or less right up to 100%.
Surgical procedures generate placebo effects. In one study, 40% of patients who underwent disc surgery for back pain problems who were found not to
have disc disease at the time of operation had complete relief of their symptoms postoperatively.
Placebo effects demonstrate time-effect and peak-effect behavior, dose-response, and other characteristics of real drugs. They also cause side effects such as
drowsiness, headache, nervousness, insomnia, and nausea.
Yellow capsules tend to be viewed as more stimulatory, while white pills tend to be seen as analgesics and narcotics. Injections may have greater effects than
oral agents.
Placebos can have adverse effects, including that of making symptoms worse. In one study, 70% of subjects told that an electric current was being applied to
their scalp (when it was not) experienced headaches.
Even therapeutic agents have greater effects when patients expect benefits as compared to when they do not. Nor is this phenomenon a subjective one.
Asthmatic subjects in one trial, for example, showed twice the reduction in airway resistance when given a bronchodilator (a drug known to reduce airway
resistance by dilating the bronchial tree of passages in the lungs) that they were told would have such an effect as compared to when they were told the
therapy would have the opposite result.
Positive expectations of physicians and others involved in a patient's therapy are similarly associated with better outcomes, of active treatments as well as of
placebos. In one double-blind study comparing anti-hypertensive agents, just the physician learning prematurely that a new drug was working as well as others
(instead of better) was followed by an increase in measured blood pressures for all subjects after that point in the trial.
What I find most interesting of all is that the VAST majority of people, when confronted with this information, will absolutely swear that THEY could never be fooled by a placebo response!!!! What really sucks about the placebo response is that it disappears as soon as the person realizes it's all in their head
What a shame people can't teach themselves to harness this kind of brain power without taking a little pill or injection.......
