Kinesiology 1070A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Endorphins

• School: Western University
• Department: Kinesiology
• Course: Kinesiology 1070A/B
• Professor: Harry Prapavessis

Document Summary

Placebo: the (cid:373)easura(cid:271)le, o(cid:271)ser(cid:448)a(cid:271)le, or felt i(cid:373)pro(cid:448)e(cid:373)e(cid:374)t i(cid:374) o(cid:374)e"s health not attributable to treatment. Psychological theory: belief in the treatment causes improvement (mental aspect) Talbot, 2000: doctors successfully eliminated warts by painting them with dye and calling it treatment. Wisdom-tooth extraction patients got the same relief from real ultrasounds as fake ultrasounds, so long as the patient and therapist thought the machine was on. *placebos can still work even if the patients are aware that their medication is a placebo. Placebos cause the brain to release endorphins, or endogenous opioids that reduce pain. Showing attention, care, affection, etc. to a patient triggers physical reaction in the body which reduces stress and promotes healing via the immune system. The study found that whether patients received surgery or not, their knee recovered the sa(cid:373)e a(cid:374)d they (cid:272)ould(cid:374)"t tell (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h surgery they had received. Ethical issue: deceit of sham surgery vs false benefits of the actual surgery.