Then they have put them in a bad mood and served them their drinks. The result was interesting. The improvement in their moods was similar in both groups, but only the feeling of inebriation was comparable. A similar study was carried out among student at Princeton University, New Jersey.
However, the weirdest study was carried out at Baylor School of Medicine which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 and which evaluated patients who have suffered from serious pain after knee surgery. The corresponding author, Dr. Bruce Moseley, who is an experiences surgeon, knew that the knee surgeries were helping his patients: 'All good surgeons know that there is no such thing as the placebo effect in surgery.' However, he tried to understand which part of the surgery helped his patients the most.
The patients who were participating in this study were divided into 3 groups. One group of patients had their damaged knee cartilage scraped off. The second group underwent a knee joint rinse so that any material that could cause inflammation was removed. The third group underwent "false” surgery, i.e. patients were given general anesthesia and Dr. Moseley gave them 3 standard cuts and behaved as if he was performing surgery. After the procedure, all 3 groups of patients were prescribed the same post-op care which included physical therapy.
The results were shocking. The condition among all patients improved. Dr. Moseley thought the results were both shocking and clear: 'Those patients weren't helped by my surgical skills at all. The whole benefit of the surgery of knee osteoarthritis was the placebo effect.'
To be Continued.
Read Part 2 in November issue
of MAsters of Health AMgazine.