Understanding The Concept of Placebo Effect and How Beneficial It is

The placebo effect is a positive therapeutic effect claimed by a patient after receiving a placebo believed to be an active drug. Each person has their own say on placebo effects because it seems ethical or unethical. It should not matter if it is unethical as long as the patient is cured at the end of the treatment. Placebo effects can help the patients’ illness by letting them believe it truly works since people believe in what they are told from a reliable source.

Placebo effects do not work if scientists pick out the problems from their procedures thus diminishing the placebo effect. According to Harriet Hall, who wrote “Oxygen Is Good-Even When It’s Not There,” states that the oxygen therapies help for illnesses by bathing in it, drinking it, and injecting it in veins since oxygen is in water (112-113). Hall states that scientists can not prove that oxygen under pressure therapies did work and didn’t work to patients who believe it is a cure (113). Hall also claims people bought a brand of oxygen called “Vitamin O” from Rose Creek Company that sold oxygen in a can but did not contain activated oxygen, due to laboratory issues, that claimed to prevent and treat diseases, regulate metabolism, which were advertised to people (114). Hall includes that the company sold 50,000 bottles a month until the Federal Trade Commission required them to pay $375,000 for false advertisement to consumers and prohibited them to make duplications of any kind (114). Hall states that the company changed their name to R-Gardens, Inc. and hired an anthropologist who proved that their product had oxygen along with breaking every rule of scientific experimentation so they could meet the Federal Trade Commission’s requirements (114-115). Hall mentions that the company pretended to be scientific so people believed that their product had oxygen in it which revealed that the company gave alternative medicine to people so they would maintain their health and be exploited to fears about the side effect from pharmaceuticals (116). Hall writes that people have to think about the situation deciding if the therapy is helpful or not (116). According to Harriet Hall, who wrote “Wired To The Kitchen Sink: Studying Weird Claims For Fun And Profit,” says that craniosacral therapy is a method used to restore health by adjusting the bones of the skull and sacrum while there are fallacies that said craniosacral therapy has been debunked (118). Hall says Dr. John E. Upledger, a major proponent of craniosacral therapy, assisted a neurosurgeon and observed that the dura moved up and down at 10 cycles per minute which indicated that the skull bones must move in and out so there won’t be any damage to the nervous system (118-119). Halls mentions that Upledger found people who are disabled and had monthly therapies became healthier with the treatment but failed to convince Hall that the treatment worked when patients recalled about their experience (119). Hall says that Upledger’s experiments of tissue memory, energy cysts, somatoemotional release, healing energy, Inner Physician, and sound therapy enhanced the patients’ response and therapists’ skill that showed no failures in his treatments (120). Halls states that Upledger was convinced that his treatments worked so well he didn’t show any proof of his works in case of winning the Nobel Prize or think about the patients’ lives for providing then unproven treatment (121). Hall writes that humans rely on the source that they are given and base the facts upon it, but we need to sit and think about the situation so mistakes can be avoided (121).

Placebo effects can be beneficial if used to cure instead of misleading others. According to Maj-Britt Niemi, who wrote “Cure In The Mind,” belief is powerful medicine even if the patient is on the brink of death. Niemi recalls a patient called Mr. Wright was dying from cancer until he was given a new anticancer drug, Krebiozen, which cured him for 2 months until press reports questioned him about the efficacy of Krebiozen and suffered a relapse, thus his doctors lied to him by saying they injected a more effective version of the drug into him. Niemi continues that Mr. Wright was ecstatic about the injection the doctors gave, which did not contain any drugs, and remained cure-free until he died 2 months later when he learned that Krebiozen was worthless. Niemi says that a patient’s expectations and beliefs can affect the course of an illness improving the placebo effect. Niemi writes that the placebo effect was used since the 18th century as a healing process that consisted of inert pills to cure patients. Niemi states that placebo effect can also grow out of subconscious associations such as a doctor’s white coat, stethoscope, or smell of an examination room and can help reduce the pain in the body. Niemi says in experiments that consisted of controlled placebo effect groups concluded that both groups had similar data in the end, immune to the dummy pills the patients had the same response as those with a drugged pill. Niemi says that the patients expected relief from the medicine, saline, which reduced the pain in their body and those who had a saline and false-saline injection both had the same results. Niemi writes that brand names and pricing of the medicine can boost the effect of the placebo since patients distrusted those that weren’t well known and thought that it wouldn’t work as well.

Niemi recalls that patients who thought they had received a transplant improved better such as the sham brain surgery that was a success in improving the quality of life for patients with Parkinson’s disease while others received human embryonic dopamine neurons, and a year later both parties were doing physically, socially and emotionally well. Niemi writes that doctors might decide to manipulate the conscious and subconscious mind in order to cure people, or not do harm at least. According to Olivia Judson, who wrote “Enhancing The Placebo,” the placebo effect is a great medical cure if used wisely. Judson writes that the patients’ health improves knowing that the doctors are helping them become better. Judson says that medicine can improve a patients’ illness but if a doctor informs them that it would work, the patient would get better faster since the doctor assures them of a recovery. Judson says that placebo effects vary based on individual experiences since people are different from others and have different thoughts about particular diseases. Judson writes that patients are more comfortable with medical rituals along with doctors than pills and are better placebo treatments. Judson says in an experiment, those who were given a saline infusion requested less of the drug rather than those who had fake saline, which people say is unethical but the placebo enhanced the treatment in the end. Judson concludes that the placebo effect can help increase cures in illnesses instead of being a nuisance.

At a price, the placebo effect can be seen as an alternative way that doctors use for their patients if it is their last resort. Patients don’t want hear negative news from their doctor but if given some hope, it could help them climb out of the dark hole. The placebo effect can help for many people but have their downsides when told it does not work.