Editing 1526: Placebo Blocker
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic is a joke about the difficulty of testing a drug that is supposed to block the | + | {{Incomplete|Grammar correction required, 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. | ||
− | + | In a classic experiment there is a test group and a control. The control group is used to isolated a variable that the experiment can not be devised to avoid. For example, when people are treated for a illness they generally show improvement relative to an untreated patient, regardless of the effectiveness of the treatment. This is called the {{w|placebo}} effect. Because scientists wish to determine the effectivity of the treatment, they wish to isolate it from the placebo effect. Therefore, in many drug trials one group is given a placebo (an ineffective treatment) and one group is given the real treatment. This comic specifically refers to a study published in May 2015, the same month in which the comic was released, about possible mechanisms for the placebo effect. | |
− | [[Cueball]] states to [[ | + | [[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 the typical experimental design, patients would be split into two groups a control group, and the group that receives the treatment. The first group would receive the ''Placebo Blocker'' drug, while the second would get a placebo pill. Cuball 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 is the treatment that will have an effect, it can not be used as a control treatment against a placebo blocker. Cueball tries to design around this by having the first group receive the Placebo Blocker drug and the placebo, while the second receives placebo pill and something else that counteracts the placebo effect, and fails as that would also be 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. |
− | + | In 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 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. | |
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It is possible but unlikely that: | It is possible but unlikely that: | ||
− | * Cueball's sugar pills are, in fact, the Placebo Blockers themselves and that, seeing | + | * 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 | + | * 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]]. | Questionable neuroscience research is also discussed in [[1453: fMRI]]. | ||
===Placebos=== | ===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. | + | 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. |
− | 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 | + | 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 most 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. |
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. | 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]. | 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]. | ||
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===Mechanisms of the placebo effect=== | ===Mechanisms of the placebo effect=== | ||
− | + | 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 | |
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− | It is possible to test the placebo blocker | + | It is possible to test the placebo blocker by giving the test group a placebo blocker and one control group that receives no treatment what so ever, as a lack of treatment is the variable that an actual placebo is designed to control for, and another control group a placebo, to show the strength of the placebo effect in the experiment. 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 diseases may have to be done. |
==Transcript== | ==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: 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''. | :Cueball: We've used their work to create a new drug: A ''placebo effect blocker''. | ||
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:Cueball: ...wait. | :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: Mine too. | ||
:Cueball: Here, want a sugar pill? | :Cueball: Here, want a sugar pill? | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
− | [[Category:Comics featuring | + | [[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]] |
[[Category:Science]] | [[Category:Science]] | ||
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