[Science Report]:Placebo Effect Study


This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Science Report.

Many Special English Science Reports discuss medical studies thattest the effect of a new drug. Usually, a large number of people isdivided into two groups. One group takes the medicine being tested.The other takes an inactive substance called a "placebo." The word"placebo" is Latin for "I shall please." Placebo pills are usuallymade of sugar. No one knows which group is taking which substance.In such testing, the drug must perform better than the placebo toprove that it is effective.

However, the people who take the placebos often reportimprovements in their health. This is known as "the placebo effect"- pain that is eased or stopped by an inactive substance. Doctorshave reported that the placebo effect can be used in treatment. Forexample, a doctor tells a patient that a new drug will stop herpain. The pill is only sugar. But the patient does not know that.She takes the pill and says the pain is gone.

Belief in this placebo effect began with a medical studypublished in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. It said treatment with a placebomade patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. Expertsthink this is because the patients believed they were getting aneffective treatment. A new study, however, questions the placeboeffect.

Danish researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the NordicCochrane Center did the new study. They reported the results in TheNew England Journal of Medicine. They examined more than one-hundredstudies from around the world involving placebos. More thaneight-thousand people were involved in the studies. They sufferedfrom among forty different medical disorders.

The researchers found little evidence of healing as the result ofplacebo use. They found no effect at all on measurements such asblood pressure or cholesterol levels. They found evidence of aplacebo effect only when patients reported feeling better. Theresearchers said this improvement may have had nothing to do withthe placebo at all. Or the patients may have been trying to pleasetheir doctors. The researchers said placebos should be used only forresearch purposes and not for treatment.

Experts say more studies are needed to show whether or not theplacebo effect exists.

This VOA Special English Science Report was written by NancySteinbach.

品牌培训机构展示

该专题下最近更新的节目

专题广播资料索引