Universal Placebos

05/07/2023

Placebos and AI

It remains to be seen how the emerging field of Placebo Studies will incorporate the tidal surge in the use and application of Large Language Models and other forms of AI. It may be that an AI can learn to stimulate the placebo effect periodically, or as the output of some kind of trigger. It may be that the AI can also be used, consciously or not, to trigger a 'nocebo' effect. As with all things AI, it's a balancing act between the extraordinary potential of the technology for benefit or for harm. But the genie is certainly out of the bottle. The graphic for this post was generated by Bing Image Creator (bing.com/create) purely from a text prompt: "The placebo effect in a world of advanced technology"

29/05/2023

Covid-19 Vaccines and the Nocebo Effect

Meta research (an aggregation and analysis of related research efforts) has revealed a curious 'nocebo effect' related to reaction to Covid-19 vaccinations.

" ... Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center compared the rates of adverse events reported by participants who received the vaccines to the rates of adverse events reported by those who received a placebo injection containing no vaccine.

Although the scientists found significantly more trial participants who received the vaccine reported adverse events, nearly a third of participants who received the placebo also reported at least one adverse event, with headache and fatigue being the most common."

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/power-placebo

30/04/2023

“If a person believes an exercise program has been optimized and created specifically for them, the regime will have a positive effect, regardless of the content of the program.”

More at https://placebo.com.au/placebos-and-exercise/

21/02/2023

Here's some history!

https://theconversation.com/the-fascinating-story-of-placebos-and-why-doctors-should-use-them-more-often-149945

From Plato right down to 'open label' or 'honest' placebos, this counter-intuitive cure has found ready prescribers and users. And let's not forget the Bible. In Saint Jerome’s fourth-century translation of the Bible into Latin, Verse 9 of Psalm 114 became: placebo Domino in regione vivorum. “Placebo” means “I will please”, so the verse in English reads: “I will please the Lord in the land of the living.”

The first directly medical implementation of placebo treatment is recorder in 1752 by the Scottish obstetrician William Smellie, who wrote, "“... It will be convenient to prescribe some innocent Placemus, that she may take between whiles, to beguile the time and please her imagination”.

"Whither placebo?

"For centuries, the word “placebo” was closely linked to deception and pleasing people. Recent studies of open-label placebos show that they need not be deceptive to work. Contrariwise, studies of placebos show that they are not inert or invariable and the basis for the current World Medical Association position has been undermined. The recent history of placebos seems to pave the way for more placebo treatments in clinical practice and fewer in clinical trials."

Buy placebos at www.placebo.com.au

14/02/2023

A placebo might be 'given' as a remedy, or as recent research claims, given as an augmentation to another remedy, adding value to its effect while introducing no extra chemical agent in the process. Just the influence of expectation and will.

The prestigious journal Nature, has published this study - Harnessing the placebo effect to enhance emotion regulation effectiveness and choice

"... There is extensive placebo literature showing how forming positive expectancies can augment the effectiveness of already effective treatments. In that sense, placebo effects are not limited to inert treatments, but also represent a powerful mechanism for boosting outcomes following the administration of active treatments."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-29045-6

15/01/2023

The placebo effect and AI!

It seems the placebo effect is ubiquitous. With all the recent excitement and conjecture about rapid advances in Artifical Intelligence and Machine Learning, it seems that our belief that a decision is backed by an AI will not only enhance our confidence in the veracity of that decision, but also make for better decisions! This research hows that:

"Participants were asked to solve word puzzles while being supported by no system or an adaptive AI interface. All participants experienced the same word puzzle difficulty and had no support from an AI throughout the experiments. Our results showed that the belief of receiving adaptive AI support increases expectations regarding the participant's own task performance, sustained after interaction. These expectations were positively correlated to performance, as indicated by the number of solved word puzzles."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359890261_The_Placebo_Effect_of_Artificial_Intelligence_in_Human-Computer_Interaction

07/11/2022

A good updated report on the placebo effect in clinical settings – Placebos Demonstrate Power of the Human Mind

Professor Ted Kaptchuk, who studies the effect, explains:

“The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a treatment or procedure will work. It’s about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together” …

Placebos won’t, for example, cure cancer. But when a disease affects the brain-body relationship, as Angelman does, the placebo response can confound research, as we saw above. We learn from the National Library of Medicine that “Migraines, joint pain, arthritis, asthma, high blood pressure, and depression are some disease conditions that are more sensitive to the placebo effect.”

The Ritual of Treatment November 7, 2022 Michael Doneman A good updated report on the placebo effect in clinical settings – Placebos Demonstrate Power of the Human Mind Professor Ted Kaptchuk, who studies the effect, explains: “The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a tr...

23/09/2022

"I'm addicted to placebos. I'd give them up, but it wouldn't make any difference." ~ Steven Wright

18/09/2022

Research has shown that a vast array of different conditions benefit from placebos. This includes acne, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, ulcers, multiple sclerosis, rheumatism, Parkinsons’s disease and colitis. A recent study also found that placebos had a highly significant effect on erectile dysfunction.

But it may be that an account of the placebo (and nocebo) effect can be sought, if not found, in a science expanded beyond the simply neurological, which is to say, in a science that understands 'mind' as integrated in the complex web of energies interacting with the brain.

This fascinating article discusses this perspective.

The mind is a powerful thing – it can generate both symptoms of illness and symptoms of healing. Here’s what this could tell us about consciousness.

22/08/2022

More on Nocebos and Vaccine Side Effects August 22, 2022 Michael Doneman Further to our most recent post about the likelihood that the frequency of adverse side effects may be attributable to the placebo effect (or more appropriately, the nocebo effect), here’s some more detail provided by reknown...

12/08/2022

You may be surprised to read of three 'effects' of placebos proposed recently by Eve M. Krakow in Psychology Today. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stretching-theory/202204/3-surprising-powers-the-placebo-effect)

Dr Krakow takes pains to emphaise that the placebo effect is a *physical* phenomenon. There's nothing magical about it. It will seem magical (as Isaac Asimov once wryly observed) until there's sufficient science.

First, the placebo has a negative 'flipside'. This is the *nocebo* effect, and it's noted and discussed elsewhere on this site (check the tags column). A placebo effect can have either positive or negative outcomes.

Second, and very weirdly (if not 'magically') the placebo effect seems to become stronger and more proncounced over time. Placebos seem to get stronger!

Thirdly,the placebo effect does not necessarily require deception - that is, the practitioner lying to a patient that the (inert placebo) treatment is actually the 'real' treatment. We cover this too, on this site - look for 'white label placebos' in the tags.

05/08/2022

Are adverse side effects of Covid vaccines at least partly 'nocebo' effects?

https://placebo.com.au/vaccine-side-effects-are-nocebos/

17/08/2020

'Non-deceptive' placebo treatments, also known as 'open label placebos', are shown again to be (perhaps surprisingly) effective

‘Non deceptive’ placebo treatments August 17, 2020 Michael Doneman We have posted for a while now on so-called ‘open label’ placebos, and the placebo effect engaged when someone actually knows they’re taking a sugar pill (or any other placebo treatment such as a saline injection). This rep...

18/04/2020

What is the Value of Placebo Pills? Some say NOTHING WORKS BETTER ! I have just had so much fun reading about the quirky and fascinating placebo effect. “The Placebo Effect is one of the stra…

25/10/2018

New Post: Expectations and the Placebo Effect

Expectations and the Placebo Effect October 21, 2018 Michael Doneman What you expect is often what you get, and the placebo effect is at work! We have noted elsewhere that one possible account for the engagement of the placebo effect is the wish to ‘please the physician’, to be a ‘good patient...

24/10/2018