HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Exact Sciences, Carcinogen, Diethylstilbestrol
Chapter 8: Modern Biomedical Culture
Case Study: The Placebo Effect
For true believers of the separation of the mind and bod, how can we explain the placebo
effect?"
•When patients receive placebos, they feel better solely bc they believe that they are
receiving medical treatment "
•Randomized control trials—which are considered the most methodologically rigours
approach to validate the effectiveness of a treatment— often use double-blind designs to
combat that place problem "
•In double-blind study, neither the experimenter nor the research subjects know whether they
are receiving the actual treatment or a placebo"
•Goal is to minimize personal bias "
•Ensures that it is the actual treatment, rather than peoples assumptions about treatment,
that creates a difference bw those who are being treated and those who are not"
•Placebo effect also evident in surgical procedures"
How did biomedicine become central in forming our understanding of health, illness, and
the body?
•Number of historical transitions that contributed to the contemporary dominance of the
biomedicine :"
•(1) Secularization of society—process by which society has become increasingly detached
from religious influence"
•Allowed people to search for non-religious causes of illness "
•i.e. if ones disease was considered a punishment from God for sinning, then trying to
understand its causes, resisting it, or even treating it were impossible. Without God’s help,
one could not hope to cure or combat it—hence prayer and confession would be the most
likely ways to make ones self feel better, rather than for example a treatment plan or early
diagnosis
•(2) Rise of the medical profession—the allopathic medical doctor
•Allopathic—-type of medicine that focuses on diagnosing an illness and treating it using
remedies that counter its symptoms. —-ie an allopathic doctor would prescribe a
painkiller for a headache"
•Refers to the fact that these healers use treatments based on remedies that produce
effects opposite from the disease that are treating "
•Allopathic doctors had a long history of competing with other healers such as
homeopaths, naturopaths, and local healers for clientele "
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