Placebo: Another drug of Parkinson's disease

2001/08/13 Astobiza, Amaia

• Farmakologia
• Medikuntza

In Canada, the British Coulombia University of Vancouver has investigated the effectiveness of the drug used to treat Parkinson disease. For this purpose, two groups of patients were analyzed: on the one hand, those who were taking the drug and, on the other, those who were replacing the drug with placebo.

Placebo is an ineffective substance against diseases. In most cases, the doctor replaces the medicine that the patient wants to take but which for various reasons cannot be taken. The patient considers that he is taking treatment, so the ‘drug’ can be really effective. It has been proven that this trick is effective in 30% of cases. For all this, placebo is used in research to completely rule out the psychological impact of the patient and analyze the actual effect of the drug.

In this case, according to the results obtained by Canadian scientists, it seems that drugs against Parkinson's disease and simple placebo act in the same way. That is, both elevate the levels of dopamine of the brain in a similar way.

Parkinson's disease is a disease of the nervous system that appears when there is little dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, that is, a chemical medium that carries the signal between the neurons. When there are few media, the transmission of information between neurons is interrupted. This translates into problems of movement control and coordination, muscular stiffness and unstoppable feeling of vibration in the muscles being still. For this reason, treatments against the disease aim to increase the levels of dopamine.

According to the expert of the Brown University School of Rhode Island, Jon Friedman, although it is known that the effect of the drug and placebo is the same, it is necessary to continue taking the drug against Parkinson's disease. This is because the longer the duration of treatment, the longer the placebo effect lasts and, on the other hand, the shorter the duration of treatment.

If it is a trick or not, it serves to cure or prevent the disease, let the placebo be welcome.