Friday, September 4, 2009

Placebos Getting More Effective

Placebos, being told you are getting medication when you are actually getting something inert, appear to be getting more effective and researches do not really know why. The placebos are given in tests to gauge the effectiveness of drugs. With the placebos doing better, drugs are no longer making the cut. If doctors and medical researches can learn to harness the effect, it could be a significant breakthrough.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect

"It's not only trials of new drugs that are crossing the futility boundary. Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them. Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s. One estimated that the so-called effect size (a measure of statistical significance) in placebo groups had nearly doubled over that time.

It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.

The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis. The stakes could hardly be higher. In today's economy, the fate of a long-established company can hang on the outcome of a handful of tests.

Why are inert pills suddenly overwhelming promising new drugs and established medicines alike? The reasons are only just beginning to be understood.
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