Treatment Efficiency: Placebo - Coursework Example

Placebo is often used in medical practice for varying purposes. It is the introduction to this kind of medicine that has led to the identification ofwhether real medications work or are simple released in an attempt to pose treatment to certain conditions. However, placebo’s effectiveness as a sole answer to different illnesses through the use of alternative medicine is questionable in its lack of proper supporting research. Although placebo is a common term in the field of medicine, it refers to dummy medicines and methods that bear no proven connection with the response of the client to the medication. Benefits of Placebo Placebo is given in psychological realms as a kind of false medication for patients who claim to have symptoms of varying illnesses (Giovannoni et al 2010, p.416). While in preliminary studies, psychiatrists give paranoid patients placebo without revealing what kind of medicine it is. For the sake of definition, placebo medicine is characterized by neutral substances that do not affect the body. It is used to help patients overcome their psychological sickness by battling it with medicine that does nothing. A more serious benefit of using placebo drugs for mentally challenged individuals is that it avoids more serious conditions such as overdosing. Depression and paranoia are two of the most common situations answered by placebo medicine. While it is observed that the patients can be given dosages of real medicine, the inability to prove whether the patient is sane or not can pose life threatening issues. Hence, placebo is prescribed; in case they get anxiety attacks, downing more than the necessary dosage will not harm them. The placebo effect is characterized by the effects of the medicine or treatment basing solely on the belief of the patient and the amount of trust he places on the physician treating him. As some people might say, faith is the basis of placebo and the coincidental changes in the body and mind fuels the placebo effect. Placebo as a way of measuring massage effectiveness Massage therapies have been seen to answer to different joint paints and aches. Therapeutic healing is a form of alternative medicine that can be gauged through the use of the placebo effect. While alternative medicines are not properly acknowledged as under medical science, the similarities of the two include the involvement of a control treatment called the placebo. There are factors that determine the effectiveness of massaging, when placebo is considered. These factors are divided into anxiety, self-awareness, expectations and patient-physician relationship (Kaptchuk 2002, p.817). These are the primary locus of attention when studying how effective placebo is when it comes to the measurement of massage effectiveness. A vast collection of researches relating with the use of placebo against newly-developed drugs is present, as well as alternative medicinal practices heightened by the placebo effect. “The term placebo effect is taken to mean not only the narrow effect of an imitation intervention but also the broad amalgam of nonspecific effects present in any patient–practitioner relationship, including attention; communication of concern; intense monitoring; diagnostic procedures; labeling of complaint; and alterations produced in a patient’s expectancy, anxiety, and relationship to the illness (Kaptchuk 2002, p.817).” A plain example of how placebo can be used to measure the effectiveness of massage therapies is to undergo an experiment wherein two setups will be observed. The first setup is the control group, where the patients will be massaged using neutral oils and essences, while the variable group will be subjected to the similar treatment except the oils given them are therapeutic in nature and have been studied as effective treatment paraphernalia. Massage Research Therapeutic treatment has been used for stress-related cases and contemporary relaxation purposes. However, this form of alternative treatment has also been developed to calm the nerves and touch the parts that give body aches. Accompanied with essential oils and controlled pressure on the area being massaged, it forms a non-surgical method of answering to the primordial aches and pains experienced due to varying reasons. The efficacy of the treatment procedure is compared with medical records of the patient and the changes that the body experiences. Alternative medicine in the form of massage therapy is not new; in fact, it can be seen as the root of science itself. Evidences of early human civilizations that have answered their physical pains by way of natural methods are enough to fuel massage research. In order for this research’s importance to be significantly acceptable, it needs to be compared with methods proven effective. Not all patients that have a certain physical condition want to be rid of it using surgery. Some of the more complacent individuals want a quick and methodical way of releasing their body of pains; however, there are those that believe that the body does not need operations for it to be cleansed. These are the patients that resolve to alternative methods of treatment to preserve the body that have been lent to them. In the researches that engage in alternative medicines, the placebo effect seems to be of high importance. However, in the field of medicinal science placebo is merely the baseline used to measure the efficacy of the new treatment being developed. Learning Outcomes Sources say that placebo is not enough to cure a patient. It is safe to assume that the use of placebo is only to condition the mind that it is receiving medication, which in turn lessens the anxiety of the patient. Because of this, changes in the body due to stress are lessened, hence heightening the claim of the patient that the medication is effective. However, this is not acceptable in the field of medicine, especially when the body still shows signs of the illness. Cancer relapse and other illnesses need to be treated using proper medicine, and must not be entrusted with the tell-tale signs given off by placebo. Efficiency of Massage and Facial Treatments Similar to the test of whether stress therapy can be proven effective, the use of placebo methods such as massage and facial treatments have a short and fleeting effect. These methods, when not coupled with sophisticated methods of relaxing muscles and veins, acts as placebo methods whose claims of treatment is only dependent on the condition of the body afterwards. If the patient trusts that the method is effective, then he will testify to it; however, he will realize that after a day or two his muscles may ache again and his facial features will resemble his normal self. Although people claim that placebo treatments work, their conviction to make it work answers to this. As it has been said, “The clinical repercussions of the placebo are tolerated as necessary nuisance noise but are otherwise considered inconsequential or treated with contempt (Kaptchuk 2002, p.817).” References: Cho, H. (2005). Reviving the old sermon of medicine with the placebo effect. Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. 27 (4). [pp.336-340]. EMEA/CPMP Position Statement on the Use of Placebo in Clinical Trials with Regard to the Revised Declaration of Helsinki. (2001). The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products. London. [pp.1-2]. Giovannoni et al. (2010). A Placebo-Controlled Trial of Oral Cladribine for Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis. The New England Journal of Medicine. Massachusetts Medical Society. [pp.416-426] Kaptchuk, T. (2002). The Placebo Effect in Alternative Medicine: Can the Performance of a Healing Ritual Have Clinical Significance? Complementary and Alternative Medicine Series. [pp.817-825] Moerman, D. (2002). Meaning, Medicine, and the “Placebo Effect”. Cambridge University Press. [pp.1-10]. Sobel, R. (2002). Public Health and the Placebo: The Legacy of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. CATO Journal. 21(3). [pp.463-479]. Read More