[ExI] addiction again

[BillK]

On Thu, 7 Apr 2022 at 17:16, spike jones via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> When someone believes they are taking a medication but it is really an inert pill we know it is called a placebo, and notable benefits (or harm) is placebo effect.
>
> The opposite would be if someone is given a genuine medication without their knowledge.  Does that have a name?  Sure I know it is unethical as a medical practice, but I am imagining this happening in families where the perpetrator is not a doctor.  I am also thinking about if a doctor tells the patient only part of the story on a medication.
>
> spike
> _______________________________________________



Note: Sometimes the placebo will cause a cure even when the patient is
told that it is only a sugar pill.
The opposite is called a nocebo. This is when the patient is so
fearful of the proposed treatment that the sugar pill causes worse
symptoms to appear. The mind has powerful effects!
Covert medication is a legal minefield but is sometimes allowed when
it is in the patient's best interest. The assumption is that the
covert medication will be monitored by a doctor and will work as
expected. If not, then the doctor will prescribe a different
medication.

<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2650014/>
Quote:
It is well documented that placebo represents Pavlovian conditioned
reflexes activated by positive anticipation of healing. The
pain-relieving effects of placebo are due to a psychical activation of
the endogenous opioid-serotonergic, pain-inhibitory descending system.
The opposite effect is nocebo, a term introduced in 1961 by Kennedy.
Nocebo-effects similarly appears to be produced by conditioned
reflexes, but are activated by negative expectations. Nocebo-stimuli,
such as anxiety, fear, mistrust and doubt, may reduce a
placebo-effect; it may induce negative side-effects in
placebo-treatment; it may produce new aversive symptoms; and it may
reverse symptoms from positive ones to negative ones (e.g. revert an
analgesic response to hyperalgesia).


BillK