If placebos work as well as they say, why do we need drugs?
The key to a placebo is how it is presented and how believable the presentation is (I. E. How good are the actors administering the placebo? In other words if the mind believes that it is being given a pill to kill pain then that is what happens. Placebos work 60% of the time or better, but even these results can be questioned. The doctors and scientists responsible for the testing of placebos are some of same doctors that test pharmaceutical drugs. So are test results going to lean towards a drug that doesn't make them any money or towards pharmaceutical drugs that makes them billions?
I have met people that have never used an over-the-counter painkiller in their life and will tell you they've never needed it, why is that? These people are generally from third world economies where over-the-counter medications are not necessarily readily available. Is the food they eat, the reason they do not need painkillers or is it a cultural thing that is taught to them?
Doctors give placebos on a regular basis to patients asking for illegal painkillers they don't need, and strangely enough you never hear of a patient suing a doctor for being given a sugar pill.
Studies have also shown that placebos given in place of antidepressants can work just as well as pharmaceutical drugs, but what you won't hear is that the placebos had no ill side effects, why is that? At the same time if the placebo is presented to the patient with a list of possible side effects, strangely enough those side effects will appear. Does that mean that we should stop listing side bad effects. I'm sure that pharmaceuticals would love to be able to produce pills they do not have to be accountable for.
It would seem that the mind is capable of manufacturing any drug or chemical that it thinks it needs. In fact if you take pain pills on a regular basis for headaches and then stopped taking the pills the mind will literally create a headache (rebound headaches ) in order to get its fix of painkiller.
So if placebos work 60% of the time, could we cure 60% of the world with a placebo pill? Would drug dealers be more selling a placebo and get less complaints about their illegal drugs? If a person is given a placebo and told that it is an illegal drug would it show up in a drug test?
I have met people that have never used an over-the-counter painkiller in their life and will tell you they've never needed it, why is that? These people are generally from third world economies where over-the-counter medications are not necessarily readily available. Is the food they eat, the reason they do not need painkillers or is it a cultural thing that is taught to them?
Doctors give placebos on a regular basis to patients asking for illegal painkillers they don't need, and strangely enough you never hear of a patient suing a doctor for being given a sugar pill.
Studies have also shown that placebos given in place of antidepressants can work just as well as pharmaceutical drugs, but what you won't hear is that the placebos had no ill side effects, why is that? At the same time if the placebo is presented to the patient with a list of possible side effects, strangely enough those side effects will appear. Does that mean that we should stop listing side bad effects. I'm sure that pharmaceuticals would love to be able to produce pills they do not have to be accountable for.
It would seem that the mind is capable of manufacturing any drug or chemical that it thinks it needs. In fact if you take pain pills on a regular basis for headaches and then stopped taking the pills the mind will literally create a headache (rebound headaches ) in order to get its fix of painkiller.
So if placebos work 60% of the time, could we cure 60% of the world with a placebo pill? Would drug dealers be more selling a placebo and get less complaints about their illegal drugs? If a person is given a placebo and told that it is an illegal drug would it show up in a drug test?
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