Placebo A

A placebo is a dosage form devoid of an active ingredient—a dummy medication. Administration of a placebo may elicit the desired effect (relief of symptoms) or undesired effects that reflect a change in the patient s psychological situation brought about by the therapeutic setting. 

Physicians may consciously or unconsciously communicate to the patient whether or not they are concerned about the patient s problem, or are certain about the diagnosis and about the value of prescribed therapeutic measures. In the care of a physician who projects personal warmth, competence, and confidence, the patient in turn feels comfort and less anxiety and optimistically anticipates recovery. The physical condition determines the psychic disposition and vice versa. Consider gravely wounded combatants in war, oblivious to their injuries while fighting to survive, only to experience severe pain in the safety of the field hospital or the patient with a peptic ulcer caused by emotional stress. 

Clinical trials. In the individual case, it may be impossible to decide whether therapeutic success is attributable to the drug or to the therapeutic situation. What is therefore required is a comparison of the effects of a drug and of a placebo in matched groups of patients by means of statistical procedures, i.e., a placebo-controlled trial. For serious diseases, the comparison group has to be treated with the best therapy known to date, rather than a placebo. To be acceptable, the test group receiving the new medicine must show a result superior to that of the comparison group. 

A retrospective (case-control) study follows patients backward in time, the decision to analyze being made only after completion of therapy. Patients are randomly allotted to two groups, namely, the placebo and the active or test drug group. In a double-blind Luellmann, Color Atlas of Pharmacology All rights reserved. Usage subject to terms 

No direct action or effect on body functions can be demonstrated for homeopathic medicines. Therapeutic success is due to the suggestive powers of the homeopath and the expectancy of the patient. When an illness is strongly influenced by emotional (psychic) factors and cannot be treated well by allopathic means, a case can be made in favor of exploiting suggestion as a therapeutic tool. Homeopathy is one of several possible methods of doing so. 

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Several CM studies have explored interactions between medication and psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders. In a 12-week randomized, double-blind study of buprenorphine-maintained opioid- and cocaine-dependent patients, Kosten et al. (2003a) found that desipramine and CM together led to greater abstinence from cocaine and heroin and more consecutive weeks of abstinence than either treatment individually or placebo. A later... 

Recommendations in this section may change based on the results from the recent EPO-3 trial (epoetin alfa versus placebo). A difference in red blood cell transfusion rates was not observed between groups. Epoetin alpha therapy improved survival in trauma patients. Epoetin alfa did not have a measurable clinical benefit in medical/surgical non-trauma patients. Epoetin alpha therapy was associated with an increased thrombotic event rate, particularly in patients not receiving pharmacological deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis. 

Placebo A dummy pill identical in appearance to the active pill, except for the exclusion of the drug under investigation. The placebo helps to control for non-pharmacological effects that might influence the outcome of an investigation. 

In clinical trials, shortened the duration of lesions by approximately Vi day compared to placebo [A A vs. 5 days) duration of pain was also shortened by approximately >/2 day... 

Parallel groups involve the assignment of patients to two or more treatments (e.g., new agent versus placebo, a standard agent, or both) that proceed concurrently. Unlike crossover designs, the carryover effects of the first treatment are then avoided. 

Using meta-analytic techniques based on the means and the standard errors presented graphically in the poster, we estimated pooled data of the four effective dosages of quetiapine both for the BPRS and the CGI severity of illness change scores from baseline to endpoint. Quetiapine produced an improvement of 0.43 effect-size units in comparison with placebo, a difference that was highly statistically significant and about the same improvement as haloperidol. Thus, based on the BPRS or PANSS, quetiapine was similar to neuroleptics in efficacy (i.e., differences were nonsignificant). Based on our meta-analysis, quetiapine is clearly superior to... 

Dose and coworkers (257) compared verapamil with placebo in eight patients using an ABA design. Seven showed some degree of response, five with symptoms reemerging to a minor extent with placebo, and two showing no relapse on placebo. A concomitant antipsychotic was used in two and lithium in one. 

Mitler MM, Seidel WF, van den Hoed J, et al. Comparative hypnotic effects of flurazepam, triazolam, and placebo. A long-term simultaneous nighttime and daytime study. J Clin... 

Fichter MM, LeibI K, Rief W, et al. Fluoxetine versus placebo a double-blind study with bulimic in patients undergoing intensive psychotherapy. Pharmacopsychiatry 1991 24 1-7. 

There was a background history of cardiovascular disease in 40% of the patients at baseline, and myocardial infarction was reported in 1.5% of those who took finasteride and 0.5% of those who took placebo, a significant difference. 

Placebo A medication that contains inert or inactive ingredients used to pacify a patient or test a patient s psychophysiologic response to treatment. 

Placebo A "fake" (inactive) substance given for the purpose of comparison with the effects of a real medication. Placebos are most often used in scientific studies of new medications. 

Wingen M, Bothemer J, Langer S, Ramaekers JG (2005) Actual driving performance and psychomotor function in healthy subjects after acute and subchronic treatment with escitalopram, mirtazapine, and placebo a crossover trial. J Clin Psychiatry 66 436 143... 

The Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (L16, L17) is a landmark double-blind study in which cholestyramine, a bile acid se-questrant that is not absorbed from the gut, was used to lower plasma cholesterol. The investigators recruited 3806 men, with a Type II hyperlipoproteinemia phenotype and in good health, into the study. All were prescribed a cholesterol-lowering diet. Subjects were randomly assigned to a treatment group (who were prescribed 24 g cholestyramine daily) and a group with similar baseline characteristics who received an inactive placebo. A 19% lower incidence of coronary heart disease over a mean of 7.4 years in... 

Raskin, A., Schulterbrandt, J. G., Reatig, N., McKeon, J. J. 1970, Differential response to chlorpromazine, imipramine, and placebo. A study of subgroups of hospitalized depressed patients, Arch.Gen.Psychiatry, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 164-173. 

The next fundamental is to devise a study in which the new treatment will be compared with placebo and, if possible, a standard therapy, that is, new drug versus standard drug versus placebo. A placebo-controlled study for which the statistically significant differences have been predetermined allows a thorough assessment of the active therapies used, and the possibility of confirming that at least one of them is superior to placebo. 

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