1 - Placebo Flashcards
Negative Expectations may increase level of anxiety experienced, which may influence outcome of treatment. Warnings about potential side effects can lead to greater side effect occurrence.
Nocebo Effect
An inert substance that produces effective therapeutic response and side effects. Response depends on ritual(s) of therapeutic treatments, which have neurobiological and behavioural effects.
Multiple explanations for their effectiveness include Pavlovian conditioning and expectation of outcome.
Placebo
- Pavlovian conditioning
- Conscious expectation of outcomes and social learning
- Genetic variants ***runners who like running may have greater natural opioid response/higher placebo response
Explanations for Placebo effect
Highly desirable standard for experiments; neither patient nor observer knows what treatment participant has received. Such precautions ensure results of any treatment not be coloured by overt/covert prejudices by participant or observer.
Double-blind Experiment
Outcome influence not based on chemical activity of a drug–receptor interaction, but on unique characteristics of the individual (e.g., mood, expectations, perceptions, attitudes). Any placebo effect.
Nonspecific Drug Effects
All effects produced not related to the therapeutic effect. Used to be considered a good thing because they implied treatment was working.
Side Effects
- Improvement due to expectation (size, brand, capsule, invasiveness, cost, source…)
- Use in Drug testing multiple people as control(s)
- Double-blind (helps eliminatre expectancy effects of these
Placebo
Placebo Effects (strong)
- Subjective feelings
- Pain
- Energy/sleep
- Stomach discomfort
- Physiological changes:
- Blood vessel dilation
- Hormonal changes
- Gastric acid secretion
- Conditioned immune responses
- Expectation → less brain activation in pain-related regions
- Placebo response encites endogenous opioids (those with >levels have better prognosis).
