Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T20:59:43.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Healing and medical treatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Daniel E. Moerman
Daniel E. Moerman
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Dearborn
Get access

Summary

Ever since [ship physician] Stephen Maturin had grown rich with their first prize [about 1790] he had constantly laid in great quantities of asafetida, castoreum and other substances, to make his medicines more revolting in taste, smell and texture than any others in the fleet; and he found it answered - his hardy patients knew with their entire beings that they were being physicked.

Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander, 1970

Even fictional doctors know that their patient's attitudes and understanding of medicine and treatment are a fundamental part of the healing process.

An ulcer trial

In the early 1990s, Dr. Frank Lanza, a gastroenterologist from Houston, Texas, led a large team of doctors in a test of a new drug for treating ulcers. Over 300 people participated in the trial which compared the effectiveness of a new drug known as lansoprazole (its trade name is “Prevacid”) with another, older, drug for ulcers called ranitidine (“Zantac”). The people who entered this study were diagnosed with ulcers by having a procedure called an endoscopy. In this procedure, a fiber optic tube - an endoscope - is put down the patient's esophagus, and a technician examines the wall of the gut on a little television screen. In each case, only after the technician saw an ulcer in the patient's stomach was the person admitted to the study.

Type
Chapter
Information
Meaning, Medicine and the 'Placebo Effect' , pp. 9 - 15
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×