Nexus - 1803 - New Times Magazine-pages

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GLOBAL NEWS OPIUM BOOMS IN AFGHANISTAN Aarsten is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw material harvested from poppies to make heroin as well as alkaloids like codeine and morphine. According to two cables released this month by WikiLeaks, Afghanistan's supply of opium exceeds the world's demand for heroin, with its unsold stock currently totalling 12,400 tons. Taliban-linked drug cartels emerging along the southern border of the country, where 99 per cent of production takes place, influence the majority of poppy cultivation by coercing farmers into growing the crops for a strong and well-supplied "| didn't think it would work," says senior author Anthony Lembo of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an expert on IBS. "I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo. But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them." (Source: The Guardian, 22 December 2010, http://tinyurl.com/22vjud6) was widely thought, however, tha the effect only works if the patien believes that the treatment they are receiving contains an active ingredient. To investigate the limits o placebo, Professor Ted Kaptchuk o} Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center divided 80 patients suffering from irritable bowe syndrome (IBS) into two groups: one received no treatment, and the other was given dummy pills to take wice a day. The second group was old by the doctors that they would be taking "placebo pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies o produce significant improvement in IBS-symptoms through mind- body self-healing processes”. "Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made rom inert substances, but we actually had ‘placebo’ printed on the bottle," said Kaptchuk. "We told the patients that they didn't have to even believe in the placebo effect. ust take the pills.” The results, published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, showed hat the placebo pills were more effective at relieving symptoms compared with doing nothing at all. an HALF OF GERMANY'S DOCTORS PRESCRIBE PLACEBOS Prescriptions of placebos are booming in Germany and Switzerland, reveals a report released last week by the German Medical Association (GMA). For example, 53 per cent of the doctors from the Medical University of Hannover said they would prescribe placebos such as vitamin pills and homoeopathic remedies. Half the doctors in a national Swiss survey agreed. Their use of such treatments contrasts with the UK, where homoeopathic treatments have been rejected by scientists. However, "physicians should be made aware of the value of the placebo effect in the daily treatment of patients", said Christoph Fuchs, chief executive of the GMA. (Source: NewScientist, 13 March 20n, http://tinyurl.com/68cfbvp) insurgency. The drug trade in the south of the country is compounded by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's treatment of traffickers, including granting early releases to well-connected suspects. Karzai also pardoned five border police officers, who were caught with 124 kilograms of heroin and sentenced to serve 16 to 18 years in prison each, “on the grounds that they were distantly related to two individuals who had been martyred during the civil war’. (Source: Truthout, 6 January 2011, http://tinyurl.com/33zyluj) My GoD, PROFESSOR, I Dor'T BELIEVE IT... A PUBLIC PHONE BooTH, AnD (NTACT. PLACEBO EFFECT WORKS, EVEN IF PATIENTS KNOW THEY'RE GETTING A PLACEBO pitisnts can benefit from being treated with sham drugs even if hey are told they contain no active ingredient, scientists have found. [The finding suggests that the placebo effect could work without he need for any deception on the part of the doctor, as had been previously thought. When a patient undergoes a sham reatment for a disorder, such as aking a sugar pill, but still experiences a measurable improvement in their condition, this is known as the "placebo effect". It APRIL - MAY 2011 NEXUS ¢ 7 www.nexusmagazine.com