Kinesiology 1070A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Arthroscopy, Randomized Controlled Trial
27 Sep 2018
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Health Psychology Treatment
Placebo:
-Measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health NOT ATTRIBUTABLE to treatment
-Why would a fake surgery, therapy or an inert substance (ie. sugar pill) be effective?
-Capitalizing on the belief in the treatment or to subjective (psychological theory)
-The critical factor “is our beliefs about what’s going to happen to us”
Evidence in Support of Placebo Effect:
-Doctors covered patients warts in inert dye and promised that their warts would go away
-Pain management
-Even when patients are told a medication they are being given is a placebo, it can still ease
symptoms and pain (ie. Irritable bowel syndrome randomized control trial)
The Process-of-Treatment:
-Placebos cause the brain to release endogenous opioids, or endorphins, that reduce pain
-Showing attention, care affection etc, triggers physical reactions in the body= reduces stress
and promote healing (better immune system response)
Knee Surgery vs. Sham Surgery:
-Osteoarthritis (breakdown of cartilage in the joints) afflicts more than 20 million Americans
-Arthroscopic surgery= damaged cartilage is scraped (debridement) or flushed out (lavage) with
the aid of a viewing scope is a common option
-In a sham, doctors pretended to execute the surgery and then later see the effects of belief in
treatment
-On a pain scale, the placebo effect is about the same when compared to debridement and
lavage
-Looking at walking and bending, there is very similar patterns between debridement, lavage
and placebo
-Therefor, there is no clear advantage to those getting surgery and those no getting surgery
Moseley’s Findings:
-Patients feel less pain and can function better because of placebo
-Implications=
-Ethical Issues- deceit of sham surgery vs. false benefits of the actual surgery
-Insurance- will health insurance providers continue to cover the surgery
Can the Findings be Reproduced?
