1526: Placebo Blocker

2016-03-20T21:14:45Z

Coby: I think I simplified the first paragraph.

{{comic
| number = 1526
| date = May 18, 2015
| title = Placebo Blocker
| image = placebo blocker.png
| titletext = They work even better if you take them with our experimental placebo booster, which I keep in the same bottle.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Work on making the explanation more simple, as well as a summary of the article: Genetics and the placebo effect}}
This comic is a joke about the difficulty of testing a drug that is supposed to block the placebo effect.

A placebo experiment is used for research. It has two groups: one that gets a real drug, and one that gets a fake. When the group that gets the fake gets the fake, they think that they got the real thing because of the placebo effect. In this comic, [[Cueball]] is trying to test a placebo blocker.
This means that the one that gets the real thing will think that they got it because they did, and the group that gets the fake will think that they got the real thing because of the placebo effect, and this makes [[Hair Bun Girl]]'s head hurt.

[[Cueball]] states to [[Hair Bun Girl]], with a citation from the real world, that his team created a Placebo Blocker, a drug designed to prevent the placebo effect. Cueball begins to design a test for this new drug. Following typical experimental design, patients would be split into two groups: a control group, and the group that receives the treatment.

Cueball knows that the treatment given to the control group is supposed to be designed so that it is not influenced by the variable trying to be isolated. As the placebo effect ''is'' the effect under investigation, a placebo can not be used as a control treatment as a comparison with a placebo blocker. Cueball tries to design around this. In his test, both groups would receive a placebo as a treatment for an unspecified condition (the ''Treatment Placebo''); in addition the test group would receive the Placebo Blocker drug, while the control group would get a placebo pill instead (the ''Placebo-Blocker Placebo''). If this works as expected, the ''Treatment Placebo'' would be blocked by the ''Placebo Blocker'' in the test group, while in the control group, the ''Placebo-Blocker Placebo'' may have a placebo effect in blocking the placebo effect of the ''Treatment Placebo'', and the difference between these effects can be measured to test the effectiveness of the ''Placebo Blocker''.

Cueball and Hair Bun Girl think about this trial until they both develop headache from frustration. Cueball then kindly offers Hair Bun Girl a sugar pill. While this might have helped cure the headache via the placebo effect had he told her it was a headache treatment, by revealing the pill as merely a sugar pill, it may suppress or reduce the effect (although as noted above, it would probably still have some effect).

In the title text, Cueball mentions that his sugar pills against headache works even better together with the new experimental placebo ''boosters''. Incidentally, he indicates that he keeps those in the same bottle with his sugar pills. Assuming someone believes placebo ''boosters'' are in the jar this would allow them to take the sugar pills and receive a greater placebo effect, as the placebo effect is based upon faith in the treatment, regardless of whether there are placebo ''boosters'' in the jar.

It is possible but unlikely that:
* Cueball's sugar pills are, in fact, the Placebo Blockers themselves and that, seeing Hair Bun Girl has a headache, Cueball is inspired to somehow use the opportunity as an experiment to test the Blockers
* Cueball is suggesting Hair Bun Girl take a "placebo booster" which is really a "placebo blocker", thus testing the blocker he mentioned earlier in the comic.

Questionable neuroscience research is also discussed in [[1453: fMRI]].

===Placebos===
The {{w|placebo}} effect refers to the phenomenon in which patients given an inactive treatment such as a sugar pill can still show improvement relative to an untreated patient. The placebo effect is thus very important to consider when testing new drugs, since even ineffective drugs can have a positive effect on the patients due to the placebo effect. Modern drug experiments are hence conducted as {{w|Blind experiment#Double-blind trials|double-blind trials}}, where the patients are randomly given either the treatment or a placebo without either they or the administering doctors knowing who receives the new drug and who received the placebo pill. (It is important that the doctor does not know, as if they did, it may affect the way they interact with the patient.)

Generally the patients need to believe that they are receiving an active treatment, but one [http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0015591 study] showed that the effect can occur even if the patients are told that they are receiving a placebo pill. The key factor seems to be that the patients must believe that a positive effect will occur. For example, (1) patients experience a greater effect if they believe that the treatment is expensive and (2) patients who know that they have not been given an active treatment will experience the effect if they are told that placebos can have a positive effect through the power of the mind. Furthermore, the placebo can increase the effectiveness of treatments which ''seem'' larger (this is why over-the-counter pain medication is often administered as two half-doses rather than just one full dose).

Several reasons for the placebo effect have been proposed, from study artifacts - such as under-reporting of negative outcomes by patients who think they are being treated, to neurological explanations for how mental state can translate into physical outcomes.

Placebo-blockers do actually already exist. A side-effect of the opiate antagonist {{w|Naloxone}} is that it [http://healthland.time.com/2009/08/26/a-neurological-explanation-for-the-placebo-effect/ blocks the placebo effect].

===Mechanisms of the placebo effect===
The placebo effect is one of the greatest mysteries in modern medicine. It is typically found that the placebo effect is an effective treatment in itself in addition to the effectiveness of drugs and other treatments, and it has been found to cause small improvements to cancer outcomes. In other cases such as pain relief, the placebo effect is very large compared with the effectiveness of the drug itself.

The comic refers to the recent study by Kathryn T. Hall, Joseph Loscalzo, and Ted J. Kaptchuk. (2015) ''[https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/J.MOLMED.2015.02.009 Genetics and the placebo effect: the placebome.]'' Trends in Mol Medicine. Volume 21, Issue 5, May 2015, Pages 285–294

It is possible to test the placebo blocker using three groups: a test group who receive a placebo blocker, a control group who receive a placebo, and a second control group who receive no treatment whatsoever, as a lack of treatment is the variable that an actual placebo is designed to control for. Still it might be hard to determine if the pills are having a negative effect or blocking the placebo effect, so multiple trials with multiple illnesses may have to be carried out.

==Transcript==
:[Hair Bun Girl is standing in front of Cueball who does all the talking. Below them is a footnote.]
:Cueball: Some researchers* are starting to figure out the mechanism behind the placebo effect.
:Cueball: We've used their work to create a new drug: A ''placebo effect blocker''.
:Footnote: * Hall et al, DOI: 10.1016/J.MOLMED.2015.02.009

:[Zoom in on Cueball who now holds his arms out.]
:Cueball: Now we just need to run a trial! We'll get two groups, give them both placebos, then give one the ''real'' placebo blocker, and the other a...
:Cueball: ...wait.

:[Hair Bun Girl holds her chin, while Cueball just stand there for a beat panel.]

:[Hair Bun looks again at Cueball who begins to take the lid off of a medicine bottle.]
:Hair Bun Girl: ...My head hurts.
:Cueball: Mine too.
:Cueball: Here, want a sugar pill?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Science]]

269: TCMP

2016-03-20T20:47:47Z

Coby:

{{comic
| number = 269
| date = May 28, 2007
| title = TCMP
| image = tcmp.png
| titletext = A big obstacle in experimenting with the mind's dream-simulation-engine is holding onto the details as you wake up. With TCMP you can bring back any information you want.
}}

==Explanation==

{{Incomplete| Missing cultural explanation of of "first post" and trolling}}

[[Cueball]] trained himself to type while asleep, so he could communicate from inside his dreams. He calls this ''Trans-Consciousness Messaging Protocol'', or '''TCMP'''.

He succeeds in using this system to send a message from inside his dream, but his friends, [[Megan]] and another Cueball-like guy, are disappointed when that first message is a {{w|troll (Internet)|trollish}} "F1rst p0st!!", instead of something constructive. This cliche comment is type by people on their internet after they discover a previously not commented post or creation, such as this experience. Most social media sites display comments in chronological order so that the oldest comments are at the top and the newest are at the bottom. Most people only read the topmost posts, thus giving [[Cueball]]'s post the most views. See also [[1019: First Post]] and [[1258: First]] and regarding trolling [[493: Actuarial]].

"Bell & Watson" refers to {{w|Alexander Graham Bell}} and his assistant {{w|Thomas A. Watson}}. Bell is traditionally credited with inventing the {{w|telephone}} because he was awarded the patent for it although {{w|Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy|that is still controversial}}. His first phone call was to Watson in another part of their lab.

The title text explains how this protocol, if real, would be of great value in dream research since you then would not have to worry about forgetting the dreams after waking up like as in [[430: Every Damn Morning]]. You can relay the dreams as you experience them.

However, in order for this to work the dream has to be {{w|Lucid dream|lucid}}, where the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming. This type of dream is very facinating to [[Randall]] as mentioned in the title text of [[203: Hallucinations]]. But thus this could never work for normal dreams. And lucid dreams are probably easier to remember anyway.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stand with a keyboard next to a bed. The keyboard is connected to a computer to the right. He talks to Megan and a Cueball-like friend.]
:Cueball: Hey, help me test the Trans-Consciousness Messaging Protocol.
:Friend: What's that?
:Cueball: I've been training myself to keep my fingers moving slightly as I fall asleep. So I can type from inside dreams.

:[Cueball sits with the keyboard on the bed.]
:Cueball: I'm going to sleep now. My computer will relay my messages to you as I explore the dream world.

:[Cueball stand with the keyboard in a forrest with tall trees. The leaves are not visible, they are above the top of the drawing. At the top there is a frame with text:]
:In the dream:
:Cueball (thinking): So strange to think none of this is real.
:Cueball (thinking): And yet I have this lifeline to the internet back home.

:[Cueball places the keyboard on a stone, bends down and types.]
:Cueball (thinking): A chance to speak from one reality to another.
:Cueball (thinking): I feel like Bell & Watson. I get to write the inaugural TCMP message.
:Cueball (thinking): Let's see...
:Keyboard: *Type type type*

:[Megan at the computer and the Cueball-like friend behind her looks at his message from the dream. At the top there is a frame with text:]
:Outside:
:Megan: "F1rst P0st!!"?
:Friend: Great. He's jumped straight to trans-reality trolling.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Dreams]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1526: Placebo Blocker

269: TCMP