Placebo effects of caffeine on maximal voluntary concentric force of the knee flexors and extensors

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Tallis ◽  
Bilal Muhammad ◽  
Mohammed Islam ◽  
Michael J. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Concentric Force ◽  
Knee Flexors

Learned Placebo Effects in the Immune System

2014 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Vits ◽  
Manfred Schedlowski
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Placebo Response ◽  
Immunosuppressive Drug ◽  
Immune Functions ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
New Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Biological Variables ◽  
Experimental Approaches

Associative learning processes are one of the major neuropsychological mechanisms steering the placebo response in different physiological systems and end organ functions. Learned placebo effects on immune functions are based on the bidirectional communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral immune system. Based on this “hardware,” experimental evidence in animals and humans showed that humoral and cellular immune functions can be affected by behavioral conditioning processes. We will first highlight and summarize data documenting the variety of experimental approaches conditioning protocols employed, affecting different immunological functions by associative learning. Taking a well-established paradigm employing a conditioned taste aversion model in rats with the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A (CsA) as an unconditioned stimulus (US) as an example, we will then summarize the efferent and afferent communication pathways as well as central processes activated during a learned immunosuppression. In addition, the potential clinical relevance of learned placebo effects on the outcome of immune-related diseases has been demonstrated in a number of different clinical conditions in rodents. More importantly, the learned immunosuppression is not restricted to experimental animals but can be also induced in humans. These data so far show that (i) behavioral conditioned immunosuppression is not limited to a single event but can be reproduced over time, (ii) immunosuppression cannot be induced by mere expectation, (iii) psychological and biological variables can be identified as predictors for this learned immunosuppression. Together with experimental approaches employing a placebo-controlled dose reduction these data provide a basis for new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of diseases where a suppression of immune functions is required via modulation of nervous system-immune system communication by learned placebo effects.

Placebo Effects in Therapeutic Outcomes

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Horin ◽  
Kent Lee ◽  
Luana Colloca
Keyword(s):  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Therapeutic Outcomes

scholarly journals Neuromuscular electrical stimulation in early rehabilitation of patients with postoperative complications after cardiovascular surgery

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Oleinik ◽  
AN Sumin ◽  
AV Bezdenezhnykh
Keyword(s):  
Postoperative Complications ◽  
Cardiovascular Surgery ◽  
Handgrip Strength ◽  
Left Knee ◽  
Baseline Data ◽  
Knee Extensors ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Initial Strength ◽  
Knee Flexors

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution Research Institute for Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases Introduction The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of NMES in patients with complications after cardiac surgery. Methods This study was 37 patients who had significant postoperative complications after cardiovascular surgery. Participants were randomly - NMES group, n = 18; control, n = 19. It was not possible to blind the investigator. Analyzed basic clinical data. The dynamometry of the muscles upper and lower extremities was carried out, as well as a 6-minute walk test (6MWT). Also, the thickness of the quadriceps was measured using ultrasound.The patients underwent NMES on the quadriceps femoris muscle, daily from the third postoperative day, until discharge. The duration session was 90 minutes. Outcomes No differences were found in the baseline characteristics of the groups, including the results of laboratory and instrumental studies. Groups were comparable in the surgery and perioperative parameteres. The initial strength indicators also had no significant differences in the groups. At discharge knee extensors strength (KES) was significantly higher in the NMES group. The knee flexor strength (KFS) and handgrip strength (HF) increased the same in both groups. The quadriceps crosssectional area (CSA) muscle increased more in the NEMS group than in the control to the time of discharge. Average KES increased to a greater extent in the NMES group. At the same time, average and maximum KFS increased equally in both groups. A 6MWT before discharge did not show a difference between groups (P=.166). The NMES course did not affect the duration of hospitalisation (P=.429). Discussion This pilot study show beneficial effects of NMES on muscle strength in patients with complications after cardiovascular surgery. Physical tests initially and in dynamics NEMS Group (n = 18) Control group (n = 19) Baseline Discharge Baseline Discharge P-level Right knee extensors strength (kg) 20,3 [17,9; 26,1] 28,05 [23,8; 36,2] * 20,1 [18,6; 25,4] 22,3 [20,1; 27,1] * 0,004 Left knee extensors strength (kg) 17,75 [15,5; 27,0] 27,45 [22,3; 33,1] * 20,8 [17,5; 24,2] 22,5 [20,1; 25,9] * 0,017 Right knee flexors strength (kg) 14,85 [11,7; 19,5] 17,5 [14,1; 23,4] * 16,9 [13,1; 23,8] 19,2 [12,5; 26,4] * 0,971 Left knee flexors strength (kg) 14,7 [12,6; 19,6] 19,75 [15,9; 24,2] * 16,2, [10,4; 25,1] 18,8 [13,1; 27,7] * 0,889 6-MWT (m) 148,5 [108,5; 174,0] 288,0 [242,0; 319,0] * 169,0 [115,0; 217,0] 315,0 [277,0; 400,0] * 0,166 Right handgrip strength (kg) 24,5 [15,0; 33,0] 25,5 [19,0; 36,0] * 27,0 [18,0; 32,0] 30,0 [20,0; 35,0] * 0,795 Left handgrip strength (kg) 17,0 [12,0; 27,0] 21,0 [15,0; 31,0] * 19,0 [14,0; 29,0] 23,0 [16,0; 30,0] * 0,541 * - p-level from baseline data < 0,05 ** - p-level from baseline data ≥ 0,05

Placebos and Movies: What Do They Have in Common?

2021 ◽  
pp. 096372142110038
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Benedetti
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Physiological Effects ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
What Matters

Placebos are fake therapies that can induce real therapeutic effects, called placebo effects. It goes without saying that what matters for inducing a placebo effect is not so much the fake treatment itself, but rather the therapeutic ritual that is carried out, which is capable of triggering psychobiological mechanisms in the patient’s brain. Both laypersons and scientists often accept the phenomenon of the placebo effect with reluctance, as fiction-induced clinical improvements are at odds with common sense. However, it should be emphasized that placebo effects are not surprising after all if one considers that fiction-induced physiological effects occur in everyday life. Movies provide one of the best examples of how fictitious reality can induce psychological and physiological responses, such as fear, love, and tears. In the same way that a horror movie induces fear-related physiological responses, even though the viewer knows everything is fake, so the sight of a syringe may trigger the release of pain-relieving chemicals in the patient’s brain, even if the patient knows there is a fake painkiller inside. From this perspective, placebos can be better conceptualized as rituals, actions, and fictions within a more general framework that emphasizes the power of psychological factors in everyday life, including the healing context.

The Placebo Drama of the Asclepius Cult

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-226
Author(s):  
Olympia Panagiotidou
Keyword(s):  
Historical Study ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Cognitive Research ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patients suffering from various diseases resorted to his sanctuaries, the so-called asclepieia, looking for cure. Many inscriptions preserve stories of supplicants who slept in the abaton of the temples and claimed that they had been healed or received remedies from the god. The historical study may take into consideration modern (neuro)cognitive research on the placebo effects in order to examine the possibilities of actual healing experiences at the asclepeiea. In this paper, I take into account the theoretical premises of the placebo drama theory suggested by Ted Kaptchuk in order to explore the specific factors, including the personality of Asclepius, his patients’ mindsets, the relationship between them, the nature of the supplicants’ impairments, the employed or prescribed treatments and the ritual settings of the cult, which could have mediated health recovery, and contributed to the phenomenal success of the Asclepian therapies via the activation of patients’ placebo responses.

scholarly journals Reactivity in social scientific experiments: what is it and how is it different (and worse) than a Placebo effect?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jiménez-Buedo
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Scientific Experiments ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
In Virtue Of

AbstractReactivity, or the phenomenon by which subjects tend to modify their behavior in virtue of their being studied upon, is often cited as one of the most important difficulties involved in social scientific experiments, and yet, there is to date a persistent conceptual muddle when dealing with the many dimensions of reactivity. This paper offers a conceptual framework for reactivity that draws on an interventionist approach to causality. The framework allows us to offer an unambiguous definition of reactivity and distinguishes it from placebo effects. Further, it allows us to distinguish between benign and malignant forms of the phenomenon, depending on whether reactivity constitutes a danger to the validity of the causal inferences drawn from experimental data.

Effects of the use neuromuscular electrical stimulation of the lower extremities in the prehabilitation of patients in a before cardiac surgery

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Oleinik ◽  
AN Sumin ◽  
AV Bezdenezhnykh
Keyword(s):  
Cardiac Surgery ◽  
Handgrip Strength ◽  
Lower Extremities ◽  
Left Knee ◽  
Knee Extensors ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Elective Cardiac Surgery ◽  
Antagonist Muscles ◽  
Muscle Groups ◽  
Knee Flexors

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): Research Institute for Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases Aim To evaluate the effects of neuromuscular electrostimulation in the prehabilitation and prevention of muscle weakness in patients awaiting cardiac surgery. Materials and methods 122 patients waiting for elective cardiac surgery were included. Exclusion criteria: age less than 25 and more than 80 years; emergency and urgent surgical interventions; arthropathies; low pain threshold; rhabdomyolysis and other myopathies; cognitive dysfunction. Routine laboratory and instrumental examinations were performed in all patients upon admission to the hospital, as part of a standard examination. 62 patients were randomly selected for the preoperative NMES group, in addition to the standard preoperative preparation and treatment program. The standard program included 60 control patients. Patients of the NMES group underwent quadriceps stimulation for at least 5 sessions, lasting 90 minutes, daily before surgery. Results. The groups were comparable and did not have significant differences in gender and age characteristics, according to the main clinical and anamnestic data and types of operations. Initially, there were no differences in the state of the muscles of the lower extremities, the distance of the six-minute walking test (6MWT), and the strength of the hand grip. After NMES, there was an increase in muscle strength relative to the control group, both stimulated muscle groups and unstimulated antagonist muscles, as well as a greater 6MWT distance and hand compression force. All the differences were significant. Conclusions The course of pre-rehabilitation of NMES before surgery, allowed to maintain, and in some cases improve the condition of the muscle frame of the lower extremities. A positive effect was observed not only in stimulated muscle groups, but also in antagonist muscles Indicators of muscle status NMES (n = 62) Control group (n = 60) Baseline Discharge Baseline Discharge P-level Right knee extensors strength (kg) 24,4 [18,3; 31,4] 30,4 [23,8; 36,2]* 24,7 [20,1; 33,2] 22,25 [18,9; 30,4] <0,001 Left knee extensors strength (kg) 23,8 [19,3; 31,3] 29,2 [23,6; 35,4]* 25,75 [19,2; 31,3] 22,9 [18,9; 27,8] <0,001 Right knee flexors strength (kg) 18,9 [13,3; 24,0] 21,7 [16,6; 25,1] 19,55 [13,1; 26,0] 16,7 [12,1; 23,3] 0,006 Left knee flexors strength (kg) 19,3 [14,3; 24,5] 21,9 [17,3; 26,7] 19,5 [13,0; 24,3] 18,2 [13,4; 22,2] 0,005 6-MWT (m) 300,0 [261,0; 371,0] 331,0 [280,0; 375,0] 304,5 [253,0; 380,0] 285,5 [246,0; 342,0] 0,006 Right handgrip strength (kg) 28,5 [20,5; 34,0] 31,5 [22,0; 34,0] 29,0 [19,0; 34,0] 27,0 [19,0; 33,0] 0,054 Left handgrip strength (kg) 25,0 [18,0; 31,0] 25,0 [18,0; 32,0] 24,0 [15,0; 31,0] 22,0 [14,0; 28,0] 0,062 * - p-level from baseline data < 0,05 Abstract Figure. dynamics of stimulated muscles

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