The placebo effect occurs when a patient is given a drug, shot, etc. to treat a medical condition, but this treatment contains no active substance that has an effect on the health of that patient. This is the basic definition of a placebo effect. It is basically an experiment that is conducted on the patient to ascertain the effect that the psychology of a person has on its body. This experiment is conducted so as to find the statistics for the cure that needs to actually be tested. There are many diseases on which the placebo effect is implemented for the cure. By using this method, doctors are out to experiment on the effect that the placebo has on the psychology of the patient and how that psychology helps in the treatment of a disease.
The placebo effect is basically used to determine the effectiveness of a particular drug and gain statistics. Sometimes it so happens that a person shows positive or negative effects after undergoing the placebo effect. A few problems that placebo effects are known to solve are sleep disorder, depression, etc. Most of these are related to the psychology of a patient. It is basically conducted to research the relationship between the body and the mind and evaluate the effect that the psychology of a patient has on his disease. The effect of the experiments on some people after undergoing placebo is the basis of the definition of placebo effect. This kind of experiment is basically conducted during clinical trials for different diseases including cancer to know the effect that the psychology of a patient may have on his/her body.
Placebo Effect on Cancer Patients
The placebo effect is now widely used in cancer patients. If a pill is given orally then it is possible that that cancer patient may suffer some side effects. Statistics show that the pill or the cancer can cause these side effects, and to differentiate between the two, doctors have started to use the placebo effect. This experiment provides them with comparable statistics, which helps them in the development of medicines. Some patients are given the actual medicine and others undergo the placebo effect. The statistics derived from these experiments create a foundation for a cure.
To come up with a drug that helps cure cancer, it is imperative that the placebo effect be used for cancer clinical trials. If a cancer drug is fit to get marketed then doctors will have the statistics and results of the placebo patients to vouch for the genuineness of that drug and it will not have much to do with the psychology of the patient.
Even though the placebo effect provides statistics and serves as an experiment, they can help in the formation of a drug that cures cancer. The comparative study of the statistics of both the drug and the placebo will help provide a foundation for a cancer drug.
Placebo Effect on Psychology
The positive or negative effect that a patient witnesses during a placebo effect proves that the psychology of a person has an actual effect on his body. These are evaluated with the help of the statistics gained during experiments conducted. This connection between the mind and the body is a strong tool that can help undermine the effect of a disease as strong as cancer. Even though the placebo effect is used as an experiment to understand the statistics and behavior of the actual drug, it helps to develop a cure.
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