Or at least: “Seriously Damage You’re Health”
The power of placebo is a well known fact in medicine
en.wikipedia.org...(origins_of_technical_term) .Give someone terminally ill with cancer a prescription of e.g. chalk tablets and the
chances of the patient surviving dramatically increase. The power of placebo is further boosted if the doctor is positive about the outlook for the
patient, and spends more time with them. It can be further boosted by factors such as the colour of placebo pills
www.bmj.com...
It is now a measurable scientific fact that the power placebo is not all in a patients mind, but rather in their brain; actually changing how a brain
deals with a sick body.
www.msnbc.msn.com...
Placebo Causing Harm…
Most research into placebo focuses on its positive effects as this is easier to measure. But does tricking a patient into thinking something will
cause them harm cause the “harmless” placebo to do just that?
I have read in BBC Focusmag about a 26 year old man who last year was rushed to hospital after taking an overdose on placebo antidepressants. He was
slipping in and out of consciousness until a supervisor of the drugs trial was called in and realised the man was on placebo. The mans blood pressure
then returned to normal in 15 minutes. Unfortunately I can’t find the article as my computer doesn’t interact with their website too well. So
I’ll have to make do with this instead…
External Source: www.innovations-report.com...
Specifically, the 30-day mortality rate for those who received a t-PA overdose was 9.8 percent, and 19.5 percent for those receiving an
underdose. Those receiving a correct dose had a mortality rate of 5.4 percent. Conversely, those who received an overdose of placebo had a 10
percent mortality rate, and 23.5 percent rate for underdose. Those who received the correct dose of placebo also had a 5.4 percent mortality
rate.
(Underlining by me).
Interesting: So even though the drug appears as dangerous as a placebo (when taken properly) a placebo can be as dangerous as the drug taken
improperly!!! Wow
So Do Tobacco Warnings Have A Placebo Effect?
When they write on
every packet of tobacco things like: “Smokers die younger” “This product will kill you” “You’re infertile now”
and “You’ll go blind **** head”
Don’t you think this negative campaigning, especially since it’s done in the form of authoritative warnings, will have its own placebo effect?
This is serious stuff given a overdose on a dummy antidepressant can send at least one man in and out of consciousness.
If there is an effect how effective might it be?
Placebo medicines work best when…
1. The patient believes the placebo will work
2. When lot’s of time is spent between the patient and authoritative information source (i.e. doctor)
3. When the colour scheme-delivery of the placebo is most effective.
Tobacco warnings share…
1. The user believes the warning to be true. After all the messages are undisputed scientific fact, which some great boffins have worked out.
2. The Tobacco warning spends plenty of time with its user. So much so that after a while tobacco smokers grow semi “blind” to the same warnings.
This is why some anti-tobacco health fascists had the “great” idea of printing numerous health warnings; thereby ensuring the smoker is bombarded
by a cocktail of information their mind is less likely to black out.
3. The colour scheme of the warnings is most effective. It’s large, bold,
black ink against a white background. Given that black is sort of
toxicity associated colour, and white shows black up, I would say the health fanatics could hardly have done a better job.
What do you think ATS? How many lives a year could be ruined by well meaning government health warnings?
I feel so strongly about this, and having my own (otherwise attractive) tobacco packets vandalised by government graffiti (the same government that
toppled many of our own boys lives in Iraq which really makes me feel sick) that I’ll be writing to British American Tobacco (or some other tobacco
producers) when this thread is done.
Given the way they were able to come up with semi-scientific research that smoking might not cause cancer up till the early 19990’s,
I could
think of no one better to conduct research, and to lobby the government to conduct its own research (or otherwise allow the government to face
unlimited liabilities running into many billions of dollars for needlessly making smoking more hazardous).
[edit on 090705 by Liberal1984]