Are drugs a placebo?

You know I find lucozade far more effective at making me feel better than any over the counter flu/cold tablets I've tried over the years.

Blue powerade, whenever I get cold/flu have a bottle every 3-4 hours and it will shift even the nastiest of colds.
 
Paracetamol is most certainly a placebo. It's rubbish. Codeine on the other hand, does work.

You need 2 x 30/500 cocodamol to even feel the effects though. (Prescription only)

Over the counter the strongest you'll get is 12/500
 
If it's a placebo, then how do these drugs work at reducing fever in babies/toddlers who are too young to understand?

Or is the placebo acting on the parents/nurses, making them hallucinate when looking at the thermometer?
 
I also took anti-depressants about 18 years ago for a few months, had no idea what I was getting into. They are certainly not placebo and wouldn't recommend them to anybody, they do to some degree 'work' but at the cost of rearranging your brain chemistry possibly permanently. Leaving you a bit zombied. Almost a chemical method of lobotomising somebody.
 
Many drugs yes. Some no, for example the Red Pill works wonders and has only positive side effects.
 
Ibuprofen will shift a headache for me in about 20 minutes - Paracetamol very hit and miss - I find it works well for things like toothache but not so much for headaches. When I get a migraine though nothing will touch it :|

With colds stuff like Lemsip is the difference between being able to get comfortable to sleep or not.
 
Cocodamol certainly works but it once backed me up so badly the stomach pain it gave me was far worse than the original pain it was prescribed for!

Remember the Nurofen scandal last year - by using advertising to change your understanding of what the drug did, marking their price up even though they contained the same ingredients? BBC Source. The other half was being a right cow and giving me a headache so I took Nurofen Period Pain and would you believe it, the pain went away. Perhaps some placebo effect here, dunno. :)

Talking of ingredients, remember the markup of branded medicines which contained the exact same stuff as the cheaper alternatives. It's all about the P/L codes. MSE Source.
 
No. Obviously no.
This. Bizarre thread is bizarre.

I take antihistamines on a regular basis, I know they work well.

Antibiotics stopped me getting blood poisoning a couple years ago.

Taken various corticosteroids and I can vouch for the effectiveness of those, too ;)

Fortunately I'm not on nearly as many "meds" as other people I know. Just stuff to control allergies, enhance breathing and stop nighttime itching (which makes it impossible to sleep if I don't dose up before bed). But I know how bad things are if I don't take them, and therefore can judge the effectiveness of taking them. The ones I take sure aren't placebos.
 
Most hayfever tablets are not designed to work after you take them like a relief, they are intended to be taken over a long period of time to build up an immunity, quite similar to a preventative inhaler.
 
Most hayfever tablets are not designed to work after you take them like a relief, they are intended to be taken over a long period of time to build up an immunity, quite similar to a preventative inhaler.
I see no evidence of this whatsoever.

Where did you get this from?
 
You know I find lucozade far more effective at making me feel better than any over the counter flu/cold tablets I've tried over the years.

It's the glucose in it.

The dentist once gave me a strong glucose drink (not sure what it was, but wish I did lol) after giving me an anesthetic injection which made me feel faint. It was probably the most effective thing I've ever taken :p
 
You do realise they're generally tested in double blind trials alongside placebos?
Although they have to beat placebo, that doesn't mean they work on the majority of people.
Yet people still just aimlessly take it although they know it doesn't work on them, rather than trying something else.

Paracetamol for instance only works on about 25% of people with normal headaches. But it's not the only option. I'm in the majority it doesn't work for, however ibuprofen lysine works wonders for headaches.
 
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