The Placebo Effect

B2 – Upper Intermediate

One doctor made up a fake drug and used every skill he had to convince a group of people it was a cure for their fears, phobias, addictions and insecurities. He was able to get some remarkable results, but in fact the drug was nothing more than a sugar pill.

Can a “fake” treatment really cure an ailment?

Watch the video below to learn more about the placebo effect.

Discussion Questions:

1. Explain the placebo effect. How is it used in a medical research?

2. What are the positive and negative effects of the placebo effect?

3. What conditions do you think can a placebo produce results even when people know they are taking a placebo?

4. Talk about your own experience of a placebo effect.

5. What if all medicines were placebo all along?

0.00 avg. rating (0% score) - 0 votes

Related posts:

  1. The ‘Benjamin Button’ Effect B2 – Upper Intermediate Aging is inevitable and everyone goes through it. Not everybody enjoys...
  2. The Mandela Effect And False Memories B2 – Upper Intermediate Have you ever noticed that you may distort some facts when talking about the same past...
  3. False Consensus Effect Drives Environmental Damage B2 – Upper Intermediate “I bet everyone else does it too!” Have you experienced justifying...
  4. Bystander Effect B2 – Upper Intermediate Have you witnessed an emergency? Were you alone or were there...
  5. The Butterfly Effect B2 – Upper Intermediate A man quit his job for being mistreated by his manager....

2 replies on “The Placebo Effect”

1. Explain the placebo effect. How is it used in a medical research?
The placebo effect consists in one drug which apearance looks so similar to real drug but do not make any changes in levels of pain, although many times the people who take placebo, decreased their levels of pain. Nowadays, the placebo effect is using to compare the efficacy in differents treatments in clinical trials.

2. What are the positive and negative effects of the placebo effect?
In my opinion it is very important to take placebo treatment because the investigator could be compared all treatments without danger to this patient.

3. What conditions do you think can a placebo produce results even when people know they are taking a placebo?
Many times when people feels ill and take the placebo can feel so better and only with this treatment they think that y

4. Talk about your own experience of a placebo effect.

I think that it is very important that the patient believe in the effect to the drug and due to this reason the patients maybe feels better.

5. What if all medicines were placebo all along?
I think that not a option because the placebo could not reduce the levels of pain in differents diseases and not all patients thinks that this type of drugs could help to feel better.

Your efforts in writing your answers is much appreciated!

Here is a sentence that you can definitely improve more:

The placebo effect consists in one drug which apearance looks so similar to real drug but do not make any changes in levels of pain, although many times the people who take placebo, decreased their levels of pain.

The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which a person feels an effect after taking a drug that seems so similar to the actual one but actually do not cause any changes in the person’s level of pain. However, many times, people who take placebo drugs decrease their pain level somehow.

Keep going with your practice to continue seeing improvement in your writing skills.

Leave a Reply

Only registered students can submit comments.