Arguementive Essay

Evelyn Williams

Leslie Jewkes        

English 002W 201

April 20, 2013

Placebo or Not

Take a young man in his early to mid-twenties whose is always getting sick with no real cause. He goes to a doctor and the doctor tests him but finds no problems yet the young man still complains about his symptoms. The doctor still sees nothing causing the trouble and decides to have him take placebo so the young man will feel satisfied. The young man takes the placebo as required from his doctor and expecting the medication to work, he starts to feel better in a matter of days. This is one of many examples of using placebo. A 'sugar pill' that has no drugs or medicine designed to help the body but instead uses mind over matter known as a placebo. The placebo is not a miracle drug that will cure anything or anyone, it is an effect that relieves symptoms temporarily. Placebo is a medicine not based on drugs despite the mysteries about it, it is an effective use of medicine.

One definition of describing placebo, by Julio Rocha do Amaral and Renato M.E. Sabbatini, is “Placebo is any treatment devoid of specific actions on the patient’s symptoms or diseases that, somehow, can cause an effect upon the patient.” Though the placebo existed for centuries, it was not until the 20th century that people started to question and research it. As technology advances new research methods are opening up and “extensive laboratory research has been undertaken to elucidate neurobiological mechanisms of placebo effect” (Millar). The reason for this is that the effect of placebo is still a mystery still unexplained. With taking placebo it can shortly relieve symptoms and is “thought to have something to do with the body’s chemical ability” (American Cancer Society). Currently there are two main ways that the placebo is used. A doctor can prescribe the medicine to the patient and pharmaceuticals use placebo as a way of testing their new medicines before putting them out of the market.

Distributing medicines in the market, Pharmaceuticals continue developing new medicines against their competitors. Testing medicines before sending them out on the market is required and must go through clinical trials. In clinical trials placebo’s has effectiveness. Separating volunteers into two groups for testing new medicine made by the pharmaceuticals, the doctors either use a medicine out on the market or placebo. The clinical trials have one group use the new medicine while the second group uses the second medicine. Using two different medicines, it is testing how effective the new medicine compared to the other medicine. Neither group knows which of the two medicines they are using as a way to keep it truthful. The doctors record the results of the two groups and calculate the effectiveness. When using the placebo as the second medicine it is normally difficult to have a higher result of the new medicine compared to the placebo. However, obtaining higher results against the placebo tells how well the new medicine is. (Dubinsky and Friedman)

Having a higher goal is good but at the same time it is difficult and too much. Placebo has a higher rate than most when using it in clinical trials. Silberman stated in his writing, “highly anticipated medical breakthrough…undone in recent years by the placebo effect” break pharmacy industries after years of creating new medicines. Even if the new medicine does well so does the placebo causing disputes over whether taking placebo is easier than taking the new medicine. Over time, placebo use rate has risen. “It’s  not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It’s as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger” (Silberman p.33). While pharmacy industries compete with each other they have also compete against placebos. Placebos do not need refined but other medinces that have been around for decades are suddenly in need of being redeveloped. With all the research on placebos there are still many mysterious about it and they remain a problem for pharmacy industries. 

Using placebo to test medicines is highly effective way of using placebo but that is a not the only effective way. Placebo is acting as a normal medicine bought at a pharmacy or at a store in the medicine section in the store. Taking it can help relieve “things like pain, insomnia, depression, anxiety, functional bowel disorders, functional urinary disorders” (Kaptchuk). “The placebo looks, tastes, or feels just like the actual treatment” so that the placebo doesn’t seem different with the actual treatment (ACS). It’s not only confined taking placebo as a medicine but as stated in Ira’s interview with Kaptchuk, “it's really the encounter with the doctor and all the trappings of the office and being taken care of that - is the action that is actually helping the patient and making the patient feel better.” So it is not just the form the placebo is taken but the actions used with it.

Like any other medicine, placebo has side effects. Placebo’s effectiveness depends on the patient and this includes the side effects. Having a negative effect with taking placebo is “the nocebo effect, in which a person has more symptoms or side effects after a placebo” (ACS). The nocebo effect can enhance the patients occurring symptoms. From studies of the placebo’s effect on the mind “pain is more intense when a person expects more pain than when they don’t” (ACS). Knowing there are chances of having the nocebo effect after taking the placebo there is also the morality of deceiving patients. The patients taking placebo without their knowledge see it as a deception and an underhanded way of giving them a different medicine. There was an ethical research and investigations into the deceptive use of placebos for use of research studies. Recently in an experiment, “adopted authorized deception…which suggest that this approach may become more widely used” (ACS).

The placebo still not completely understood but has high effects despite not knowing everything about it. Since using placebo in clinical trials helps to test new medicines, the effect of placebo can have a higher success rate than the testing product. The drug that is being testing is supposed to help the patients’ symptoms or diseases and with the belief, the patient taking placebo can do better than the actual medicine. There are no changes with taking placebo knowingly or unknowingly that shows how effective the placebo becomes depending on the patient taking it. From the way, they use placebo many can bring out the effectiveness of the “sugar pill”.

Works Cited

American Cancer Society(ACS). "Placebo Effect." 4 October 2012. American Cancer Society. 26 February 2013 <http://www.conacer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/placeboeffect>.

Dubinsky, Richard and Joseph H. Friedman. "The placebo effect." 26 August 2008. Neurology. 26 2 2013 <http://www.neurology.org/content/71/9/e25.full>.

Kaptchuk, Ted. One Scholar's Take On The Power of The Placebo Ira Flatow. 6 January 2012.

Millar, Franklin G. "The Placebo Effect: Ethical and Conceptual Issues." 2010. Department of Bioethics. 26 February 2013 <http://www.bioethics.nih.gov/research/placebo.pdf>.

Rocha do Amaral, Julio and Renato M.E. Sabbatini. "Placebo Effect: The Pwer of the Sugar Pill." 25 July 1999. Cerebromente. 26 February 2013 <http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n09/mente/placebo1_i.htm>.

 Silberman, Steve. "The Placebo Problem." Groopman, Jerome. The Best American Science Writing. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010. 31-44.w