some things about placebo

taken from a discussion on /.

...getting a guy completely trashed on water, because he thought he was drinking vodka. Sure, he'd had a few vodkas already (only a few), but once the bottle ran out, he still wanted more, so I filled up the bottle with water, and he and I sat down and kept drinking the 'vodka'.

I acted as if I were drinking vodka (the flinching at the strength of it, and pretending to be feeling the effect), until he became so drunk on about 350ml of water (and the perhaps 100ml of vodka that he'd drunk earlier) that he couldn't stand and was passed out, and was out of action for almost a day.

After this, with the d*ckh**d out of the way, I finished my good deed for the party, and everybody else had a great time from that point onwards at the party... it only took about 40 minutes for this to work.

So, yes, I can believe that the placebo effect works - and even more effectively on fools like the guy in my anecdote.

&

I was listening to JJJ the other day and Doctor Karl was talking about placebos. He mentioned that a patent had come in to the hospital in which he was working in great pain (kidney stones or similar). The nurse was sent to get the pain killers (morphine?) which were located about 10 minutes away at the other end of the hospital. Dr Karl (mad scientist he is) was about to flush the "whatever they flush" with saline, and decided to try a placebo experiement.

Just before he injected the saline, he told the patient that he was giving him the pain
killer. To the doctor's surprise, the pain went away quickly.

The interesting thing was, the nurse returned with the medication and
it was administered. The patient then showed the symptoms of an
overdose. His heart rate plummeted, his breathing changed dramatically
(can't remember if it was slower of faster). But after a short while, (about 20 seconds) his
heart rate returned and the man slept the remainder of the night.

Not that I'm an expert in the field, but i think this thing DOES work. i am a living example.. not really the same thing, but still, i feel balanced and in a good mood just by "thinking right"... so its all about one's ability to use their(?) brain in an optimal way.