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Tuesday, October 13th, 2015

The Placebo Effect Is Getting Stronger — But Only in the U.S.

Author:     Melissa Dahl
Source:     Science of Us
Publication Date:     October 9, 2015 12:35 p.m.
 Link: The Placebo Effect Is Getting Stronger — But Only in the U.S.
Stephan:   The Placebo Effect is an example of consciousness affecting physical reality -- your body. We know, for instance, that it is possible for people to literally change the structure of their DNA. Thus, this story of how Americans differ from the people of other nations, is an example of how this individual technique plays out at the social level.
Credit: jedmorey.com

Credit: jedmorey.com

It’s a mystery of modern medicine: Americans — and only Americans — are becoming more likely to report feeling very real physical effects after taking totally fake painkillers, say scientists from McGill University. According to their findings, published this week in the journal Pain, the placebo effect has gotten stronger since the early 1990s, but only in drug trials conducted within the U.S. — not ones conducted in Europe or Asia.

The McGill University researchers analyzed 84 clinical drug trials of pain medications tested between 1990 and 2013. Over that 23-year period, they focused on the patients’ self-reports of their level of pain after taking either the actual drug or the placebo, and found some striking figures. According to the patient responses, in 1996, medications were rated as being 27 percent more effective painkillers, on average, as compared to placebos. By 2013, however, that difference had shrunk to just 9 percent.

But this finding only held true for the trials conducted in the U.S.; no similar increase […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 10:16 am

    This shows the power of consciousness to alter the brain and body in general. Consciousness is the most powerful tool we have; use it wisely.