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Ambika Kilaparthi

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. - 0 views

  • response to placebo was considered a psychological trait related to neurosis and gullibility rather than a physiological phenomenon that could be scrutinized in the lab and manipulated for therapeutic benefit. But then Benedetti came across a study, done years earlier, that suggested the placebo effect had a neurological foundation. US scientists had found that a drug called naloxone blocks the pain-relieving power of placebo treatments. The brain produces its own analgesic compounds called opioids, released under conditions of stress, and naloxone blocks the action of these natural painkillers and their synthetic analogs.
  • Placebo-activated opioids, for example, not only relieve pain; they also modulate heart rate and respiration. The neurotransmitter dopamine, when released by placebo treatment, helps improve motor function in Parkinson's patients. Mechanisms like these can elevate mood, sharpen cognitive ability, alleviate digestive disorders, relieve insomnia, and limit the secretion of stress-related hormones like insulin and cortisol.
  • Alzheimer's patients with impaired cognitive function get less pain relief from analgesic drugs than normal volunteers do. Using advanced methods of EEG analysis, he discovered that the connections between the patients' prefrontal lobes and their opioid systems had been damaged. Healthy volunteers feel the benefit of medication plus a placebo boost. Patients who are unable to formulate ideas about the future because of cortical deficits, however, feel only the effect of the drug itself. The experiment suggests that because Alzheimer's patients don't get the benefits of anticipating the treatment, they require higher doses of painkillers to experience normal levels of relief.
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  • placebo response has limits. It can ease the discomfort of chemotherapy, but it won't stop the growth of tumors. It also works in reverse to produce the placebo's evil twin, the nocebo effect. For example, men taking a commonly prescribed prostate drug who were informed that the medication may cause sexual dysfunction were twice as likely to become impotent.
  • placebo aids recovery is by hacking the mind's ability to predict the future. We are constantly parsing the reactions of those around us—such as the tone a doctor uses to deliver a diagnosis—to generate more-accurate estimations of our fate. One of the most powerful placebogenic triggers is watching someone else experience the benefits of an alleged drug. Researchers call these social aspects of medicine the therapeutic ritual.
  • What turns a dummy pill into a catalyst for relieving pain, anxiety, depression, sexual dysfunction, or the tremors of Parkinson's disease? The brain's own healing mechanisms, unleashed by the belief that a phony medication is the real thing. The most important ingredient in any placebo is the doctor's bedside manner, but according to research, the color of a tablet can boost the effectiveness even of genuine meds—or help convince a patient that a placebo is a potent remedy.
  • Red pills can give you a more stimulating kick
  • green reduces anxiety
  • White tablets—particularly those labeled "antacid"—are superior for soothing ulcers
  • More is better,scientists say. Placebos taken four times a day deliver greater
  • Branding matters. Placebos stamped or packaged with widely recognized trademarks are more effective than "generic"
  • Clever names
  • volunteers in this high-interaction group got as much relief as did people taking the two leading prescription drugs for IBS. And the benefits of their bogus treatment persisted for weeks afterward, contrary to the belief—widespread in the pharmaceutical industry—that the placebo response is short-lived.
  • hybrid treatment strategies that exploit the placebo effect to make real drugs safer and more effective. Cancer patients undergoing rounds of chemotherapy often suffer from debilitating nocebo effects—such as anticipatory nausea—conditioned by their past experiences with the drugs. A team of German researchers has shown that these associations can be unlearned through the administration of placebo, making chemo easier to bear.
  • body's response to certain types of medication is in constant flux, affected by expectations of treatment, conditioning, beliefs, and social cues.
  • Big Pharma have moved aggressively into Africa, India, China, and the former Soviet Union. In these places, however, cultural dynamics can boost the placebo response in other ways. Doctors in these countries are paid to fill up trial rosters quickly, which may motivate them to recruit patients with milder forms of illness that yield more readily to placebo treatment. Furthermore, a patient's hope of getting better and expectation of expert care—the primary placebo triggers in the brain—are particularly acute in societies where volunteers are clamoring to gain access to the most basic forms of medicine. "The quality of care that placebo patients get in trials is far superior to the best insurance you get in America
  • The HAM-D was created nearly 50 years ago based on a study of major depressive disorder in patients confined to asylums. Few trial volunteers now suffer from that level of illness. In fact, many experts are starting to wonder if what drug companies now call depression is even the same disease that the HAM-D was designed to diagnose.
  • What all of these disorders have in common, however, is that they engage the higher cortical centers that generate beliefs and expectations, interpret social cues, and anticipate rewards. So do chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, Parkinson's
  • In standard trials, the act of taking a pill or receiving an injection activates the placebo response. In open/hidden trials, drugs and placebos are given to some test subjects in the usual way and to others at random intervals through an IV line controlled by a concealed computer. Drugs that work only when the patient knows they're being administered are placebos themselves.
  • Ironically, Big Pharma's attempt to dominate the central nervous system has ended up revealing how powerful the brain really is. The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapist, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better. That's potent medicine.
anonymous

Features of assessment learners use to make informe... [Med Educ. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI - 0 views

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    "Eighty-five learners (53 undergraduate, 32 postgraduate) participated in 10 focus groups. Two main findings emerged. Firstly, the perceived effectiveness of formal and informal assessment activities in informing self-assessment appeared to be both person- and context-specific. No curricular activities were considered to be generally effective or ineffective. However, the availability of high-quality performance data and standards was thought to increase the effectiveness of an activity in informing self-assessment. Secondly, the fostering and informing of self-assessment was believed to require credible and engaged supervisors."
anonymous

A systematic review of the effects of residency training on patient outcomes - 0 views

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    Ninety-seven articles were included from 182 full-text articles of the initial 2,001 hits. All studies were of average or good quality and the majority had an observational study design.Ninety-six studies provided insight into the effect of 'the level of experience of residents' on patient outcomes during residency training. Within these studies, the start of the academic year was not without risk (five out of 19 studies), but individual progression of residents (seven studies) as well as progression through residency training (nine out of 10 studies) had a positive effect on patient outcomes.
anonymous

The effectiveness of case-based learning in health... [Med Teach. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI - 0 views

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    "Overwhelmingly, students enjoy CBL and think that it enhances their learning. The empirical data taken as a whole are inconclusive as to the effects on learning compared with other types of activity. Teachers enjoy CBL, partly because it engages, and is perceived to motivate, students. CBL seems to foster learning in small groups though whether this is the case delivery or the group learning effect is unclear."
anonymous

JAMA | Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust - 0 views

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    "The effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. Medicine practiced with narrative competence, called narrative medicine, is proposed as a model for humane and effective medical practice. "
anonymous

How to write and evaluate effective questions: - 4 views

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    Simply put, writing effective questions is easier than it might seem. You will more often than not observe gains from the very act of engaging your student in the mind tasks of metacognition and retrieval practice and then peer discussion. The questions will of course improve once you get feed back from students and make tweaks.
anonymous

Teaching Empathy to Medical Students: An Updated, Systemati... : Academic Medicine - 1 views

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    "These findings suggest that educational interventions can be effective in maintaining and enhancing empathy in undergraduate medical students. In addition, they highlight the need for multicenter, randomized controlled trials, reporting long-term data to evaluate the longevity of intervention effects. Defining empathy remains problematic, and the authors call for conceptual clarity to aid future research."
anonymous

The Clinical Assessment of Substance Use Disorders - publication - MedEdPORTAL - 0 views

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    "To describe the essential components of the medical model of substance use disorders. To delineate the interviewing skills necessary to screen effectively for substance use and abuse. To understand the high rate of psychiatric and medical co-morbidity and more effectively screen patients for these disorders. To demonstrate skills for evaluating patients' stage of change, readiness to accept the diagnosis, and readiness to undertake behavior change. To clearly and supportively recommend treatment to patients with substance use disorders. To describe the skills required for addiction prevention counseling. To define the skills that help set respectful limits on patient requests for prescription medication. To demonstrate awareness of how physician/clinician attitudes toward patients with substance use disorders impact recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. To demonstrate knowledge of substance use disorder treatment standards and the ability to recommend appropriate referrals."
anonymous

The use of simulation in teaching the basic sciences [Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2013] - P... - 0 views

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    " Simulation because of its unique effects on learning is currently being successfully used by many institutions as a means to produce that integration through its use in the teaching of the basic sciences. Preliminary data indicate that simulation is an effective tool for basic science education and garners high learner satisfaction."
anonymous

Technology-Enhanced Simulation for Health Professions Education, September 7, 2011, Coo... - 2 views

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    "In comparison with no intervention, technology-enhanced simulation training in health professions education is consistently associated with large effects for outcomes of knowledge, skills, and behaviors and moderate effects for patient-related outcomes. "
anonymous

CADTH: Rx for Change Database - 0 views

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    "The Rx for Change database summarizes current research evidence about the effects of strategies to improve drug prescribing practice and drug use. This database houses summaries of key findings from systematic reviews that evaluate the effects of strategies targeting professionals, the organization of health care, and consumers."
anonymous

PLoS ONE: Neural Correlates of Effective Learning in Experienced Medical Decision-Makers - 1 views

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    "Neural Correlates of Effective Learning in Experienced Medical Decision-Makers"
anonymous

Features and uses of high-fidelity medical simulations that lead to effective learning:... - 0 views

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    "While research in this field needs improvement in terms of rigor and quality, high-fidelity medical simulations are educationally effective and simulation-based education complements medical education in patient care settings."
anonymous

Physician preferences for elements of effective consultations - 0 views

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    "Physicians agreed on many essential elements for effective consultations. These results should guide efforts to improve communication in the consultation process and design electronic medical record systems."
anonymous

Context matters: emergent variability in an effectiveness trial of online teaching modu... - 0 views

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    "It was observed that each institutional context formed a complex educational ecology. The intervention became interwoven with different educational ecologies so that it could no longer be considered a stable variable across the study. We suggest that researchers should conduct implementation-profiling studies in advance of any intervention-based research to account for the constructing nature of educational ecologies on their interventions and in doing so to more clearly differentiate between efficacy and effectiveness studies."
anonymous

Effective or just practical? An evaluation of an online postgraduate module on evidence... - 1 views

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    Our study has shown that the online module on EBM was effective in increasing EBM knowledge and skills of postgraduate students and was well received by both students and tutors. Students and tutors experienced generic challenges that accompany any educational intervention of EBM (e.g. understanding difficult concepts), but in addition had to deal with challenges unique to the online learning environment. Teachers of EBM should acknowledge these so as to enhance and successfully implement EBM teaching and learning for all students.
anonymous

Overview Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective - 3 views

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    "The focus of this Toolkit is on creating written material intended for use by people eligible for or enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children's Health Insurance Program -- and by people who serve or assist them, such as family members and friends, outreach workers, agency staff, community organizations, and care providers. While the guidelines and advice we offer are geared to the needs of CMS audiences, most of them reflect general principles for effective communication of information that can be applied to any audience."
anonymous

JMIR--Understanding the Factors That Influence the Adoption and Meaningful Use of Socia... - 1 views

shared by anonymous on 07 Oct 12 - No Cached
Dianne Rees liked it
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    Based on the results of this study, the use of social media applications may be seen as an efficient and effective method for physicians to keep up-to-date and to share newly acquired medical knowledge with other physicians within the medical community and to improve the quality of patient care. Future studies are needed to examine the impact of the meaningful use of social media on physicians' knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors in practice.
anonymous

Perspective: a culture of respect, part 2: - 0 views

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    "Central to an effective response is a code of conduct that establishes unequivocally the expectation that everyone is entitled to be treated with courtesy, honesty, respect, and dignity. The code must be enforced fairly through a clear and explicit process and applied consistently regardless of rank or station.Creating a culture of respect requires action on many fronts: modeling respectful conduct; educating students, physicians, and nonphysicians on appropriate behavior; conducting performance evaluations to identify those in need of help; providing counseling and training when needed; and supporting frontline changes that increase the sense of fairness, transparency, collaboration, and individual responsibility."
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