Placebo

Question 1

Placebo reaction

Answer 1

The sum of changes obtained in an individual as a consequence of placebo treatment

Question 2

Placebo effect

Answer 2

Average changes in a given group

• Perceived placebo-effect
• True placebo-effect

Question 3

Perceveied placebo effect

Answer 3

the sum of changes observed in a placebo-grouping during a clinical trial

Question 4

True placebo effect

Answer 4

differences of parameter between a placebo-treated and a non-treated (control) group.

Question 5

Placebo-reactor

Answer 5

A person who produces placebo-response in a study

• positive reactor: shows the expected response
• negative reactor: produces a response contrary to the expected direction (e.g. negative symptoms)
• non-reactor: produces no response
• Side effect produces: shows placebo side-effects

Question 6

Reactor personality

Answer 6

a responder who produces placebo-reaction consistently or at least more than the probability of chance.

Question 7

Concordance

Answer 7

co-operation with the physician in the therapy

Question 8

What are probably not (only) placebo?

Answer 8

• psychotherapy
• hypnosis
• acupuncture
• phytotherapy (use plants)

Question 9

What are those we don’t know whether placebo?

Answer 9

• homeopathy
• altenative therapies
• astrology

Question 10

The most important factors of the placebo effect (physician characteristics)

Answer 10

• gender, status
• expectations and need of the physician
• therapeutic suggestion
• doctor patient relation

Question 11

The most important factors of the placebo effect (patient characteristics)

Answer 11

• personality and psychological disposition of the patient
• doctor-patient relation
• previous experience, belief about the disease
• symptoms and severity of the disease
• adherence

Question 12

The most important factors of the placebo effect (medicine)

Answer 12

• prestige
• form
• dosage
• shape/size
• color

Question 13

How expectations work?

Answer 13

We attribute the effects to an external intervention; placebo takes over the attributes of the external factors; placebo alters the behavior; we feed back the outcome to the place;

PLACEBO BECOMES THE OBJECTIVATED FORM OF THE ANTICIPATION

Question 14

Consciousness?

Answer 14

• conditioned experiences are unconscious
• expectations are frequently implicit, that is do not appear in the mind
• almost all elements of the placebo-effect maybe totally or partially unconscious

Question 15

Culture

Answer 15

• biological elements (immune-adaptation to the local bacterial association)
• behavioral elements (feeding habits)
• psychological elements
• social elements (health care systems, education etc.)

Question 16

Where evolution meets culture?

Answer 16

Sociability and group-formation on one hand, and system- formation (rules, traditions, meanings etc.) on the other hand.

Question 17

Placebo therapy?

Answer 17

• replacement
• therapy on its own right
• balanced design
• add-on design (the ethically most acceptable design)

Question 18

Nocebo

Answer 18

“negative placebo”

when negative expectations of the patient regarding a treatment cause the treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would have.[1][2] For example, when a patient anticipates a side effect of a medication, they can suffer that effect even if the “medication” is actually an inert substance

Question 19

Symptom report

Answer 19

Many frequent, everyday complaints (headache, dizziness, weakness etc.) are not necessarily pathological. Most healthy people may experience any of them temporarily, even if not taking any medicine. This is called SYMPTOM REPORT.

Question 20

Factor predicting the number of side effects

Answer 20

Earlier personal experience, expectation, somatising tendency, somatosensory amplification.

Question 21

Some important consequences

Answer 21

• placebo-treatment seems to be effective in disorders of psychological, but not of physiological origin.
• a crucial factor of the effect is patients compliance
• a nocebo-effect can be turned around by a placebo treatment