This Pill Will Make You Feel Better, but We're Not Sure Why

1. What is the placebo effect? When patients given sugar pills feel better because
they think the pills are medicine
2. How does the medical profession feel about prescribing placebos? The medical
profession, at least officially, frowns upon prescribing placebos, because it usually
involves lying, implies disrespect and can destroy trust in
doctors.
3. When placebos are prescribed, what are the reasons quoted by the prescribers
for doing so? They were prescribed to people suffering from pain, anxiety,
agitation, vertigo, sleep problems, asthma and drug
withdrawal. Most had no idea that they were getting placebos.
4. How did Dr. Lichtenberg become interested in the placebo effect?
he became interested in the placebo effect because he had been helped by it
himself.
5. What does Dr. Lichtenberg think is, ultimately, the message of the placebo
effect? People in our day and age are surprised that a non-pharmacologic
intervention could be useful. There are other ways of bringing comfort and succor
to a suffering patient.
The Tics of Tourette's Often Go Undiagnosed
1. Which one of the symptoms of Tourettes syndrome happens to relatively few
patients, but is perceived as happening to many?
involuntary shouting
2. What are some of the disorders that are viewed as being usually more serious or
disabling than the tics themselves? ADHD, or OCD
3. The disorder was first medically described when? 1855 by Georges Gilles de la
Tourette
4. It was first incorrectly viewed as being what? as a psychological problem

5. Recent studies have suggested that the correct number of those with chronic
tics is what? 1 in 100, or around 750,000 children.
6. Is this a disorder that affects more girls or more boys? it affects 4 times as
many boys than girls.
7. Describe both the phonic and motor tics associated with this disorder. Phonic
tics are sound producing, such as grunting, sniffing, stuttering, repetition. Motor
tics are abnormal movements, such as eye blinking, shoulder shrugging, jumping,
and twirling.
8. Typically, how old is the child when it first appears? in an early age around 6-7
years of age
9. What is the treatment that is still experimental but appears to have helped a
man with debilitating symptoms? Implantation of electrode into the brain is the
treatment that is still experimental.
Sudden Stress Breaks Hearts, A Study Shows
1. Which sex does this syndrome typically affect? It typically affects females
2. What was found in the patients which may have temporarily impaired their
heart function? adrenaline
3. Is this syndrome actually a heart attack? no, its stress cardiomyopathy
4. What is the difference between this syndrome and a heart attack? In this
syndrome you recover fully, and do not suffer lasting damage to the heart muscle.
Heart attacks happen when a blood clot stops circulation to the heart.
5. Scientists have known for decades that the body pours out adrenaline under
what conditions? The body pours out adrenaline under the fight or flight. It
speeds up the heart rate and tenses the muscle making someone ready to fight or
run from a danger.
Aging and Infirmity: Twinned No Longer
1. What happened to patient Nathan Rowman? had a suspected heart problem and
was confused.

2. What are some of the things that naturally occur to people as they age? Heart
muscles thicken, arteries stiffen, lung tissues diminish, brain and spinal cord
degenerate, kidneys shrink, and bladder muscles weaken.
3. But since these things occur at different rates in different organs and in
different people, the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging has determined what?
No single chronological timetable of human aging exists
4. What happens too often in response to early symptoms? Too often, older people
and their relatives dismiss or ignore early symptoms of what may very well be a
correctable problem, because they wrongly assume that the changes are to be
expected as one grows old.
5. What are those symptoms? diminished appetite, a change in mental
functioning, incontinence, falls, dizziness, pain and a loss of functional
abilities like dressing oneself or negotiating stairs
6. What is one of the most common correctable problems? How does this occur?
drug toxicity, As people age, body fat is gained at the expense of lean muscle,
resulting in less body fluids to dilute water-soluble drugs and more fat tissue for
storing fat-soluble ones. Loss of body fluids allows certain drugs to reach toxic
levels when given in doses appropriate for younger adults.

7. Compare the symptoms of illness in young people to older adults? a young

adult may run a high fever with a serious infection, but the naturally lower body
temperature of an older person, along with a diminished ability to mount an
immunological attack against an invading organism, may result in no noticeable
rise in body temperature.
8. What are the 8 changes that commonly occur in older adults that may be
explained by other causes that simply old age? Changes in mental status, falls,
dizziness, diminished appetite, delirium, incontinence, pain, and loss of functional
ability
9. What is the bottom line?
to assume that a symptom is a normal sign of aging