A placebo is MORE effective than CBT

The following article appeared in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine in 2005.

So dear Mr NICE, please take NOTE. You should have known this. Why didn’t you?

Because it was written by the TOP DOG from the CBT KINGDOM himself, and neither the GOVERNMENT, nor Mr TOP DOG, wanted anybody to find out. So that’s why it wasn’t published in the LANCET, or the BMJ.

Just read and enjoy. And remember, what was part of his Hippocratic Oath???

“I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.”

The article was called:

“The Placebo Response in the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”

Before you read on, what is the placebo effect???

The placebo effect occurs when a patient takes “a sugar pill” together with the suggestion from a doctor that the pill will help or cure his condition.

This effect has been known for years. When researchers discovered opiates made by the body itself, the so called endorphins, the placebo effect got a whole new meaning and led to a new path of research.

When patients, who claimed to experience pain relief after receiving a placebo, were injected with naloxone (a drug that blocks the effects of opiates), their pain returned, so it became clear that the placebo effect may be (partly) due to our body releasing endorphines.

Now read the article and don’t fall from your chair. So please make sure you are seated properly in a safe environment BEFORE you start.

I will NOT take any responsibility for any accidents if you do not do so.

“Objective: The placebo response is conventionally asserted to be high in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) because of the latter’s subjective nature and obscure pathogenesis, but no systematic review of placebo responses has been undertaken.

We report such a study. Patient expectation is known to be important in the placebo response. It is also known that CFS patients attending specialist clinics often have strong physical attributions regarding causation and hence skepticism about psychological or psychiatric interventions.

If so, the placebo response in CFS may be influenced by the type of intervention according to its perceived rationale.

We aimed to estimate the summary placebo response in clinical trials of CFS and to determine whether intervention type influences the placebo response in CFS.”

“Conclusion: In contrast with the conventional wisdom, the placebo response in CFS is low. Psychological-psychiatric interventions were shown to have a lower than placebo response, perhaps linked to patient expectations.”

The exact figures were: Normally 30% placebo effect is average among all medical conditions!!

However, in this study the placebo response among those with ME was just 19.6%. The study showed that the response to CBT was only 14%.

So what was the conclusion from the TOP DOG from the CBT KINGDOM?????

A PLACEBO was MORE effective than CBT!!!! Was this message send on to Mr NICE or the rest of the World???

NO, only to psycho people who DIDN’T want us to Find out. Thanks for sticking to the HIPPOCRATIC OATH; is that’s why some people now call it the HIPPOCRITIC OATH?????