The placebo effect

• Main Author: Ismawi, Hidayatul Radziah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Medical Gazette 2018
• Subjects: RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/84225/1/The%20Placebo%20Effect%20%E2%80%93%20Dr%20Hidayatul%20Radziah%20Ismawi%20_%20The%20Malaysian%20Medical%20Gazette.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/84225/; http://www.mmgazette.com/the-placebo-effect-dr-hidayatul-radziah-ismawi/

“Placebo: a usually pharmacologically inert preparation prescribed more for the mental relief of the patient than for its actual effect on a disorder” – Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary Everyone has heard of placebos, but have we ever wondered what they are? For easy understanding, placebos are basically drugs which have no actual action but have a positive effect on people without treating the cause of the disease. Simply put, a placebo is a fake treatment which sometimes can give rise to real results. Placebos are also used in drug research, to test the effectiveness of a drug. One group will be given a placebo and one group will be given a drug with active ingredients. The effects of both on patients and their symptoms will be compared. The effects of placebos have been widely studied. Research has shown that placebos behave similarly to regular drugs in some ways. For example: Like other medicine, placebo effects seem to follow a dose-response curve. This means that patients seem to feel better when they take 2 pills compared to 1 or if they take a bigger dose compared to a smaller dose. A placebo injection has more effect compared to a placebo pill. Placebos work better when patients are in more pain compared to less pain.