• Question: do you agree with the placebo affect? if so Why?

    Asked by ginganinja2211 to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 19 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

      Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Hi ginganinja2211,
      Interesting question! I think that the mind is an incredibly powerful thing. So powerful that it can certainly change the way our bodies work. The placebo effect does definitely happen and if it brings relief to people then I think it can only be a good thing don’t you? : )

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I don’t think it is a case of agreeing or not agreeing with the placebo effect. The placebo effect does happen and for some reason patients given sugar pills that should have no effect on their health can help them get better when they are ill. I don’t think anyone understands the science behind the power of the brain in the placebo effect and how/why it works. It is useful though because it works as a test for whether a medicine works or not. A medicine has to work better than the placebo effect for it to be considered useful for treatment of disease. If it does not work better, then we might as well give sugar pills.

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I think the placebo effect is very real, it shows the power of the mind and I think this is how treatments like homeopathy work. I couldn’t possibly speculate on what happens in the brain, but it would be very interesting to see people have an fMRI brain scan after taking a sugar pill to see what parts of the brain light up.

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