Placebo hatás kiaknázásával egy kis életet lehelnék ebbe a topikba:
A mai (2011. 07. 14) The New England Journal of Medicine lapban jelent meg egy igen érdekes cikk, Ted Kaptchuk, a téma nemzetközileg legismertebb és legelfogadottabb "opinion leader"-ének a közreműködésével.
"In prospective experimental studies in patients with asthma, it is difficult to determine whether responses to placebo differ from the natural course of physiological changes that occur without any intervention. "
"In a double-blind, crossover pilot study, we randomly assigned 46 patients with asthma to active treatment with an albuterol inhaler, a placebo inhaler, sham acupuncture, or no intervention."
"Maximum forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was measured, and patients' self-reported improvement ratings were recorded."
"Among the 39 patients who completed the study,
albuterol resulted in a 20% increase in FEV1, as compared with approximately 7% with each of the other three interventions (P<0.001). However,
patients' reports of improvement after the intervention did not differ significantly for the albuterol inhaler (50% improvement), placebo inhaler (45%), or
sham acupuncture (46%), but the subjective improvement with all three of these interventions was significantly greater than that with the no-intervention control (21%) "
"
Placebo effects can be clinically meaningful and can rival the effects of active medication in patients with asthma. However, from a clinical-management and research-design perspective, patient self-reports can be unreliable."
A betegek szubjektív megítélése szerint a placebo beavatkozások ugyanolyan jók voltak számukra
, mint az aktív kezelést jelentő szer kiváltotta hatás. Annak ellenére nyilatkoztak így, hogy a mérhető, objektív, állapotukra utaló vizsgálat szignifikáns különbséget mutatott az aktív szer javára.
Michael E. Wechsler, John M. Kelley, Ingrid O.E. Boyd, Stefanie Dutile, Gautham Marigowda, Irving Kirsch, Elliot Israel, Ted J. Kaptchuk. Active Albuterol or Placebo, Sham Acupuncture, or No Intervention in Asthma. New England Journal of Medicine, 2011; 365 (2)