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On 11 Aug 2001, at 12:40, Judith Richards posted: > Placebo Effect Probed in Parkinson's > By Adam Marcus - HealthScout News Reporter > > THURSDAY, Aug. 9, 2001 (HealthScoutNews) -- Scientists have long > believed that Parkinson's disease patients seem to be highly > susceptible to the placebo effect. Now they know more about why. > > Sham treatment of people with Parkinson's triggers a flood of the > same brain messenger molecule that "active" drugs target -- and from > the same region of the brain that's damaged by the disorder, new > research says. > > "We conclude that dopamine release in the nigrostriatal system is > linked to expectation of a reward -- in this case the anticipation > of therapeutic benefit," write the authors, led by Raul de la > Fuente-Fernandez, a visiting scientist at the University of British > Columbia's Neurodegenerative Disorders Center. If this is true, then I wonder how much the expectation of a reward, not only as symptomatic relief from taking meds, but also from any non-PD-related reward source, affects symptoms in our daily lives and is a factor in what we perceive to be the effects of our regular meds? Phil Tompkins Amherst, Massachusetts age 63/dx 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn