Placebo...Effect or Defect

The placebo effect is mostly known scam made by several people basically done to prove natural cure and that most problems are mental, using no treatment at all. Some examples are when doctors use non-medical pills (usually made of sugar) and makes the patients take them as if they were real ones; these pills are usually given as anti-depressants. Another example is fake surgeries where the subject is treated as if it was having a surgery but is actually not being done anything.

Henry K. Beecher was the first person to present this idea in the year 1955. He made around 800 different studies; one of the most outstanding experiments was one about colds where the patients felt better within six days of taking the placebo. Still 40% of the patients’ condition grew worse after taking the placebo pill. Beecher did not always expose all the data, he showed how 2/3 of the times placebo worked but did not mention how 1/3 worsened the condition. Beecher felt the urge to create another experiment to really prove his theory right. This consisted on three different groups of patients: the first didn’t get medicine, the second one got a placebo, and the last group got no treatment at all. The results favored Beecher when they revealed that the patients with the placebo and no treatment matched 100% proving that the placebo connects with mental.

Although placebo effects have been studied very well and proven to be right, a percentage of people continue doubting the evidence these studies provide about the effectiveness of the placebos. Placebo studies can result to be difficult because of many reasons; for example, the patients can react differently to please the experimenter or relating to the patients conditions itself seen as there are many levels of sickness. Also, the different treatments and its effects and also our perspective on what are improvements. Another point that is discussed is that sometimes in the fake surgeries, medicine or surgery is not necessary this contradicts if the placebo effect is indeed successful.

I believe that even though placebos are sometimes proven to be unsuccessful, truth is most of the times they work. Everything is in our heads: pain, love, depression, etc. unless the pain is caused by a fractured bone, I believe placebos would definitely work due to the brain and minds power over the rest of our whole body; tell your brain you feel sick when you’re perfectly fine and eventually you’ll start to feel sick, tell your mind you feel swell when you’re feeling sick and you’ll get better.

Alike Memories???

Agneta Herlitz and Jenny Rehnman thought about the theory of sex affecting on memory. They made many tests lead to prove that sex interferes with episodic memory, these tests also proved to favor females. Results also confirmed woman are better when relating to verbal episodic memory this is because women are better in remembering words or pictures.
Another test consisted in presenting faces to three groups. This resulted in finding how women are able to remember female faces much better. Other studies also verified women are better when there is no verbal processing. The outcomes show how memories between sexes aren’t the same.
Cultural background also influences a lot in terms of memory. Studies made found the average age of distinction in memory has to do with the different cultures. A psychologist at the University of New Hampshire called Michelle Leichtman, studied childhood memory says that culture influences deeply when dealing with memory.

Memories passed on from parents to their children manipulate how children will then recall these. Kids who grow up in a culture that talks little about autobiographical history will probably forget their childhood memories; rather than the ones whose cultures appreciate their history or memories and events that would actually remember them and pass them on with the same eagerness.

In 1994 a psychologist called Mary Mullen made the first researches that relate the ages of first memories between cultures. This study consisted of questions to caucasians and asians to illustrate their earliest memories. The average of asian students’ events was six months apart from the Caucasian students'. This probably means that caucasians have a better relation with their past.

Ones sex and its cultural and environmental traditions definitely influences ones memory.

Alzheimer's Disease

Through the video seen in class, I learned many things about the Alzheimer’s disease. What I saw most in each of the different patients who suffered from this dreadful disease was that not only did it mess with their memory but it also had a negative effect on their everyday life styles. It was sad to see how the families and their loved ones suffered along with them seeing they struggle with their life. There were cases in which these patients did not recognize or did not claim their family to be one of them. For example the lady in the nursing home, she didn’t recognize her son, he insisted of his relation to her but she did not believe any of his words. She also had illusions which are a side effect; she imagined snakes on her wheel chair when there were none there. It’s also sad to see the man in the nursing home who has a wife but barely remembers her when she is not around. Upon her disappearance, he looks for another woman in the home which he recalls as his wife. The interesting thing with this patient is how he forgets his real wife and kids but he still knows the letters to the songs he used to sing. Despite all the sad and heartfelt feelings I had watching the documentary of each of these persons lives, this video made me realize how difficult it is not only being a victim of this disease but also being the people that surround one of these patients.