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Despite a recent report questioning whether
an inactive medical treatment can cause improvement in patients'
symptoms, new research from Canada suggests that the "placebo
effect" is real.
The study found that Parkinson's disease
patients who took an inactive
placebo pill experienced a substantial increase
in the release of a brain chemical called dopamine. The release
of dopamine is impaired in people with Parkinson's.
The researchers measured dopamine levels
under two different conditions. During one part of the study,
patients did not know
whether they were taking the Parkinson's drug apomorphine
or a placebo. Dopamine was also measured under normal conditions
when patients knew they were not taking a placebo.
When patients were unknowingly taking
a placebo, they experienced an increase in dopamine levels
similar to that caused by Parkinson's drugs.
Science
August 10, 2001;293:1164-1166
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