Are drugs a placebo?

[FoxEye]

From my GP and from my Pharmacist, i also recall reading it in the piriteze paperwork that comes in the box

You don't "build up an immunity" tho. If you stop taking them the symptoms return.

I think you might be confusing the advice to take them *before* symptoms occur, so using them as preventative medicine instead of a cure once symptoms are showing.

 

[terley]

You don't "build up an immunity" tho. If you stop taking them the symptoms return.

I think you might be confusing the advice to take them *before* symptoms occur, so using them as preventative medicine instead of a cure once symptoms are showing.

I used the wrong choice of words, i meant to say "you build up a resistance" and you are correct if the tablets are stopped the symptoms return.

My GP told me to take them continuously to avoid all hayfever even during winter, primarily because i am heavily asthmatic and have a susceptibility to attacks during the "high pollen" seasons.

 

[bliss]

I take a very high dosage of cetirizine for urticaria, it also practically suppresses all of my hay-fever symptoms so I get one or two eye itches a years and that's it.

My imatinib is also very good at suppressing my leukaemia.

So no. They definitely 'work' as intended for me and are not placebos lol.

 

[Apok]

Are you dvdbunny?

 

[Ace Modder]

dvdbunny was a legend. dvdbunny for PM in the UK

 

[ebilcake]

They kick in slowly so there is no immediate effect, they may seem like a placebo but their not.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Hi

I have never found that any drugs actually make a difference to me when I'm ill or I have a condition.

For example:

• Headaches - paracethomol - never worked for me
• Cold/Flu - the usual drugs to reduce the symptoms never work
• Hayfever - tried many, many different drugs both over the counter and also perscribed, has no effect!

My hayfever atm is doing my head in, I've just used 8 tissues to wipe my nose, watery snot just running out of it like a tap and my eyes are itchy as hell, nothing works!

I think that many drugs (other than specialised drugs) are mostly in effective and people believe in them because of the placebo effect.

double the dosage - should work then. perfectly safe to do as well so long as your in good health

 

[Diddums]

Go take 10 Ritalins and tell me that drugs are a placebo.

 

[RDM]

aren't they usually just paracetamol, a decongestant and caffeine sold at a ridiculous mark-up

Ibuprofen is good for me but I think the doses in this country tend to be a bit small, you get 800 strength tablets in Switzerland where as over here its usually take 2x 200

maybe GPs over here can prescribe higher strength ones though.

400mg does almost nothing to me so its more like a placebo dose

Not wanting to go down the route of telling you what to take but if you find the 800mg tablets in Switzerland work, then wouldn't taking two 400mg tables be the same amount?

 

[arknor]

I wrote that poorly or you read it wrong.
2x 200 = 400mg dose not 2x 400mg vs 1x 800

 

[div0]

<non medical advice>Just take 4x 200mg</non medical advice>

 

[Cuchulain]

Hi

I have never found that any drugs actually make a difference to me when I'm ill or I have a condition.

For example:

• Headaches - paracethomol - never worked for me
• Cold/Flu - the usual drugs to reduce the symptoms never work
• Hayfever - tried many, many different drugs both over the counter and also perscribed, has no effect!

My hayfever atm is doing my head in, I've just used 8 tissues to wipe my nose, watery snot just running out of it like a tap and my eyes are itchy as hell, nothing works!

I think that many drugs (other than specialised drugs) are mostly in effective and people believe in them because of the placebo effect.

Try knocking back some tramadol! Hayfever this year is awful for everyone, my son who's 9 is suffering the first time in his life with it. I blame the council who've not been cutting down the verges this year due to lack of funds. I'd recommend snorting Beconase a few times a day even if you don't have symptoms, Piriton should do the trick too but it can make you drowsy.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Surely this thread is on the borderline of getting closed for medical advice.

A lot of people just blinding saying double the dosage of x and y

 

[arknor]

Surely this thread is on the borderline of getting closed for medical advice.

A lot of people just blinding saying double the dosage of x and y

omg did he say he takes 800mg of ibuprofen? :O it's not even close to the daily limit and hardly medical advice

 

[Mak3R]

I get bad migraines quite often and paracetamol and ibuprofen do nothing for them. The wife gave me two of her 30/500 co-codamols and a tramadol once for it. Was rather high I think, thought the walls were moving. Could still feel my head thumping but not the pain with it!

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

omg did he say he takes 800mg of ibuprofen? :O it's not even close to the daily limit and hardly medical advice

Sorry Dr Aknor - I thought Ibuprofen was 400 mg 3–4 times a day.

 

[Glaucus]

Sorry Dr Aknor - I thought Ibuprofen was 400 mg 3–4 times a day.

You can easily look it up
www.drugs.com/amp/dosage/ibuprofen.html

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

You can easily look it up
www.drugs.com/amp/dosage/ibuprofen.html

Yes I know - it is in the BNF.

 

[Lopéz]

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

Paracetamol is a very effective painkiller in the right circumstances. When I was in hospital a couple of years ago with a pleural effusion that resulted in sepsis I received oramorph, codeine and paracetamol. In the early stages it was all about the oramorph, but after that paracetamol was actually the most effective pain relief.

 

[mrbios]

I've always found plain old paracetemol tablets do sod all to a headache, but if i have a soluble panadol which also has caffeine in, it gets rid of my headaches really fast. I don't drink tea, coffee, coke etc. So my caffeine intake is quite low, so why does a soluble paracetemol with caffeine work perfectly for me where tablets don't i wonder.