The Magic of the Placebo Effect

The placebo effect can be known and characterized as a sham or lie by several people when in reality they forget it's use is usually in benefit of society and natural cure. The truth is a placebo can be better defined as an effect that has a measurable or truly experienced improvement in health. A placebo effect includes no cure or treatment at all. A great and simple example of a placebo effect for medical purposes can be fake surgeries or pills. These pills or surgeries would produce an effect similar to that expected to be experienced by the genuine procedure or medicine.

This amazing discovery and effective idea was first reported by Henry k. Beecher in 1955. Henry first experimented with abut 800 different studies over time. One of his most famous controversial studies was done on patients that presented a cold. These patients were given a placebo and experienced an improvement in six days. However in general cases all patients of a cold experience an improvement in 6 days with or with no medication. Beecher did not report all of the data from his experiment and left out the fact that forty percent of the time the condition of the patients worsened.

In addition, the examination of Beecher's work determined that he reported only on the percentage of conditions that showed improvement from placebo, not the percentage that deteriorated. Yes, one-third of the time conditions improved while on, but not necessarily because of, placebo; however, about 40 percent of the time conditions worsened. Beecher did not report all the data. After this experiment people became very intrigued and Beecher along with researchers created another experiment on a group of three groups of patients. One group did not receive medicine, a second group was given a placebo and the last group received no treatment. The results of the placebo and no treatment groups matched 100 percent of the time. This proved the power of the placebo accompanied with imagination.

Even though placebo effects have been thoroughly and long studied many people still believe there is no adequate evidence from studies to prove that the new drugs are more effective than placebos. The reality of studies on placebos effect is very complicated due to the fact that a number of factors can affect many treatments and the evaluation of those treatments making hard to find out what produces or is perceived as improvement. Another factor that greatly affects this studies are the participants behavior and how in several cases they behave differently to please the researcher. Many researchers such as Dr. Hróbjartsson believe the reported high levels of placebo effects are in reality flawed research methodology. The main flaw is how many studies prove a surgery or a procedure or medicine is not necessary but don’t really demonstrate the placebo effect was indeed successful. The solution is using a third control group, which receives no treatment at all. If the placebo effect receives better results than the third group, then the placebo effect is proved effective. The biggest error in placebo studies are due to the small samples used and the participants who constantly try to please the researcher.

I personally believe even though many studies based on placebos effect have demonstrated great flaws the truth is placebo effects due have a great or very high rate of effectiveness. This is due to the power of the mind and the psychological factor in which our beliefs about what’s going to happen to us permits us perceive a deep transformation without relying on drugs. Many studies like the Sapiristein have even found 50 percent of the drug effect is due mostly to the placebo effect. A person’s belief and hopes on a certain treatment may have a significant biochemical effect. We can be conditioned to release substances as endorphins and adrenaline that will serve as a pain relief and will stimulate an improvement. Even though the placebo effect isn’t entirely psychology the majority f its effectiveness lies in the power of the mind and our ability to control it.

Sources:

http://www.skepdic.com/placebo.html

http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/Debunking_the_Placebo.shtml

Are All memories Alike?

We sometimes wonder if all memories are alike and if so why are some people just better at remembering EVERYTHING. The question has been answered all memories are different and are triggered by the individuals characteristics, it's sex gender and its cultural background.

Psychologists Agneta Herlitz and Jenny Rehnman in Stockholm also wondered if one's sex affected it's ability to remember things. Trough certain tests they discovered that significant sex differences in episodic memory which is a type of long term memory that focuses on personal experiences. The findings discovered this memory favors women. Certain results demonstrated woman were significantly better in verbal episodic memory and in verbal episodic memory tasks such as remembering words or pictures. While men outperformed women in remembering symbolic and non linguistic information. Another test performed by the psychologists which involved presenting three group of participants faces found that women were able to remember the female faces more accurately. this concludes women are better than men at remembering faces especially female faces. Several other studies also demonstrated women are better at tasks requiring no verbal processing. The results suggest that the female gender hold an advantage in episodic memory demonstrating all memories are NOT alike.

Studies have found that not only does sex influence our ability to remember things but our cultural background does as well. Don't we all recall our childhood memories differently well researchers have found that the average age of difference in memory varies widely from person to person and that the average age of first memories varies up two to years between cultures. Michelle Leichtman, PhD, a psychologist at the University of New Hampshire who studied childhood memory states that the function of the meaning of memory or it's importance varies between a particular cultural system. The way parents and other adults talk or don't talk or recall memories influences the way children will later remember those events. People who grow up in a society that stresses personal history or focuses on family history will often have earlier childhood memories that people who grow up in cultures that value interdependence or talk little about shared memories and events. In 1994, psychologist Mary Mullen, PhD published the first research comparing the ages of first memories across cultures. in the study she asked more than 700 Caucasian and Asian or Asian-American undergraduates to describe their earliest memories. Mullen--a Harvard University graduate student at the time--found that on average the Asian and Asian-American students' memories happened six months later than the Caucasian students' memories. This doesn't mean Caucasian's have better memory it just means people have the type of memory that allows them get along better in their cultural environment.

Trough several studies performed in the last decade psychologists can prove that memories do vary depending on a persons sex and its cultural and environmental traditions and needs. This proves no memories are alike and we all view and recall our childhood and past memories differently.

Sources

http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/culture.aspx

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080220104244.htm

Alzheimer's EVERYONES concern

I personally believe a big part of me, who I am and what I feel and think relies on my mind and especially my memories. These memories have helped and shaped my present personality and make-up my true essence. When I think back on my childhood or nice family memories I realize this are the memories that influence me daily these past experiences truly shape me. I can't imagine finding out progressively all these memories and important characters in my life will be erased because I’ll forget them and worse of all to find out there is no cure for the disease only pills that can slow the progress of it. I would feel so frustrated and powerless knowing my life and my identity would change so drastically. I believe one of the worse consequences of Alzheimer's is the drastic change in personality of the victims how many of them become very violent and easily irritated without really being aware. This change in personality not only affects the victim but in my opinion it deeply hurts the people surrounding them like family or old friends that have to watch the person's true essence vanish away. A great example is the video we watched during class in which a man suffering of Alzheimer was sent to a clinic and forgot he had wife and openly flirted with another lady. One day his wife arrived and had to endure watching him with another women. I personally can't imagine how much it must hurt and affect emotionally to watch the person you've known and loved for so long change so much. For reasons like this I believe one of Alzheimer's worse consequences is the change in attitude or personality as a consequence of a progressive decline in memory.

Alzheimer's is a disease that not only takes away your true identity and memories but completely ends with your independence and free will or liberty. Alzheimer's is a difficult disease that not only leads to death at a certain point but forces the patient to endure various pains and sufferings. Personally I believe Alzheimer’s is a disease that ends with a persons true identity and can be very treacherous. I would definitely not like to experience or witness anyone suffer from this disease due to the fact that it is not only very harmful but has little or no cure. As stated in the new research for understanding Alzheimer's posted in Time's there is little knowledge over what cause or influences Alzheimer's and there is little money being provided for research. The fact that there is no true cure for this disease is very frustrating and should be a concern for everyone because do to it's mystery and uncertainty we never know if we one day may suffer of it. Alzheimer's is a very hard emotional and physical disease to endure and it should be everyone’s concern.