Everyone in this school knows someone with ADD or ADHD. Whether it is your friend, brother, teacher, or the kid who sits next to you in history, you know SOMEONE. And I am sure there are days where that person is driving you nuts and you think to yourself, “I bet they didn’t take their Ritalin this morning.” I personally do it with my brother almost everyday. I even keep a few of his meds on hand just in case.
However in new research from the University at Buffalo pediatric, psychologist are suggesting that if you believe that a patient has received treatment in a form of a pill you will treat them as if they have been medicated. This is called a placebo effect, which causes a positive change in symptoms, or behavior after a patient receives a “fake” medication or procedure. This is usually tested on patients but in this study they are “tricking” the people in the life of the ADD or ADHD child.
Lead researcher at UB, Daniel A. Waschbusch, Ph.D. said, “The act of administering medication, or thinking a child has received medication, may induce positive expectancies in parents and teachers about the effects of that medication, which may, in turn, influence how parents and teachers evaluate and behave toward children with ADHD.”
The next step in the placebo research is to study the parents and children and how they work together under three different conditions
1. After children received a pill with real medication
2. After children received a pill with fake medication (a placebo)
3. After children didn’t receive any pill.
Now that you know this, think of the kids you know who have ADHD and ADD. Do you think that if you were told they took their meds (even if they didn’t) you would see the positives in them? Can treating an ADHD or ADD child as if they are taken their medication, in turn produce positive changes in the child’s behavior?
3 Responses to “Fake Medicine, Real Results”
Erin, I think that you really explained this topic well by giving us examples. I do think that the kid with ADD or ADHD would act different if given a “fake” pill. They might think, “Oh, I’v taken my pills today, I shouldn’t be acting like this.” (Or something along those lines
) I think that, yes they have a problem that might need pills, but after a while of acting “normal” while on the pills, they might understand how to concentrate or how they should act. But maybe on the other hand, they really do need a pill to concentrate and a fake one wouldn’t do diddly squat. Kudos E.K.
wow I guess I’ve never thought of it like that I know quite a few people with ad and sometimes I think they haven’t taken there pill but they really have but sometime I’ve asked these certain people and they are acting just fine and haven’t taken their pill. I’ve talked to kids who have taken the pill and they can feel a difference when they haven’t taken the pill but can they concentrate as much when they haven’t taken there pill. Maybe more testing should be done to see whether the kids can feel if they have taken the real pill or not.
I think that this idea is 100% true. As long as you treat some one with high regard they will live up to that standard because they can see that someone else thinks they can do it. If no one thinks that a person can be normal how can that person think that they can be normal by themselves?