Placebos

So you see physical illness can have psychological causes now we just have time to introduce another interesting example of the interaction between the mind and the body placebos. Let's see bows maybe heard them called sugar pills are harmless substances not always sugar there used routinely on groups of sick people in experiments these experiments test the effectiveness of new drugs one group is given a new drug the other group is given a placebo and the results are measured. As you might guess some of the people who we see the new drug get better surprisingly however some of the placebo group also get better why well it's an interesting question one which doctors can't quite answer some of the group may have gotten better on their own without any treatment at all the research has shown that the very act of taking a medication that you think will make you better often does make you feel better have you ever taken an aspirin and felt better in five minutes aspirin doesn't work that fast doesn't basically if you believe you will get better sometimes you do the history of how doctors and healers have used the mind-body connection to cure people is a long and interesting but I see that it's time to close so I had to cover this in the next class you have to hold your questions on this topic till then before you go I have some handouts for you concerning the midterm exams next week.