Psychological factors in dermatology
“The skin constitutes the largest bodily organ and is bombarded daily with environmental insults, including infectious and toxic agents, allergens, ultraviolet light, and mechanical damage. Therefore, the skin is equipped with innate and adaptive properties to respond to the myriad of environmental factors encountered. In addition to environmental factors, skin also appears especially responsive to Read the full article…
Psychological factors in diabetes
According to the International Diabetes Federation, over 8% of the world population (415–420 million people) currently have diabetes, with prevalence expected to rise to 10.4% (642 million) by 2040 [International Diabetes Federation, 2015; World Health Organization. Global report on diabetes, 2016]. In 2015, health spending on diabetes represented 12% (USD 673 billion) of global health Read the full article…
Effect of stress, placebo, and relaxation on migraine
In the preface to the 1970 edition of Migraine [Sacks, 1970], Oliver Sacks says, “Some patients I could help with drugs, and some with the magic of attention and interest… it now became apparent to me that many migraine attacks were drenched in emotional significance.” The comorbidity of migraine and depression is well-known. Patients with Read the full article…
Rheumatic arthritis is a psychosomatic disease
Psychosocial factors are essential for the process and the treatment of rheumatic arthritis. Significant events in life lessen the symptoms, whereas a negative state of mind and small irritating events intensify the symptoms [Potter et al., 1997]. Psychological variables influencing the pathology are, among other things: pain, religious belief, expectation pattern, functional handicap [Young, 1992]. Read the full article…
Opioids, a painful situation
One of the chapters in Part 4 of this book is about chronic pain. Also, in 2020, my Read&Do book about chronic pain gets published. Of course, this is not a ‘cure for all.’ From the beginning – when I started my practice as a physician and was being intrigued by the placebo effect – Read the full article…
Fluid Minds, Brains, Bodies
Minds change continually. Brains change continually. Bodies change continually. According to the chosen viewpoint: with many overlaps or influences. We like to think of ourselves as solid. Daily life gives that impression. We don’t change a lot day after day. We can think of ourselves as we were yesterday or last week, last year, and Read the full article…
Placebo in Parkinson
Placebo effects in Parkinson are particularly interesting since they are substantial and well investigated in many clinical trials with objective measurements of motor performance. Also, the neurobiological mechanisms of placebo effects in Parkinson are fairly well understood. They have been visualized – no surprise to attentive readers of this book – in the brain. They Read the full article…
49. The Patient as Cure
If the placebo is made of sugar, the drug is the patient. It’s not the placebo that is ‘effective.’ It is the patient The history of medicine is sometimes called the history of placebo. That’s not unwarranted. Of all the drugs delivered about 100 years ago with an air of ‘this will work for you,’ Read the full article…
48. Is Medicine More than Itself?
The phenomenon called ‘human being’ is a totality, not the sum of all parts. The elephant viewed through the keyhole. Suppose several people are looking through a keyhole simultaneously, with the necessary drumming, of course, at an elephant who is standing in the room behind that door. One observer sees the elephant’s tail; the other Read the full article…
Psychological impact on cancer
M.A. Visintainer et al. conducted a study with rats. After implantation of a tumor, some were administered electric shocks and some were not. Of the former, some could escape the shocks and some could not [Visintainer et al., 1982]. Afterward, they checked the number of rats that rejected the tumor (and thus were cured). The Read the full article…
47. Those Who Do Not Want to Listen, Will Get Symptoms
Psycho-somatic symptoms are present because something else is not. The symptom as second best A person who suffers chronically from the pressure of stressful conditions will eventually develop symptoms (palpitations, dyspepsia…). That person can do something about those conditions. This will relieve stress, which in turn leads to fewer symptoms. He can also work on Read the full article…
46. ‘Growth,’ Says the Farmer
Every living thing in nature is ‘growing,’ including us. All respect to farmers I have fond memories of (really, more youthful readers) the back of a Brabantian draft horse. I sat on the horse cart on the way to the field to bind the hay together in triangular bales and to load the hay bales Read the full article…
45. Why Placebo Sucks
Main side-effect: the diminishment of self-reliance If it does not harm, it is of no use “No harm, no foul.” In the case of a pure placebo, this statement is absurd. It is based on the fact that there are at least no side effects. If placebo has no effect, it also has no side Read the full article…
44. The Dark Side of Depression
An internal dissociation between consciousness and the non-conscious may be hidden in depression. Is it just the brain that’s depressed, or is it the total person? It is not that depression has nothing to do with hormones and neurotransmitters and the like, but does it make sense to talk about a ‘depressed brain’? This also Read the full article…
42. Chronic Fatigue: I Would Get Tired of It
A person suffering from chronic fatigue has no control over his fatigue, regardless of whether it is physical or psychological. The last thing someone with chronic fatigue needs is a chronic fight for appreciation and respect. Such a fight stands in the way of an unbiased search for a meaningful solution. Well, we are currently Read the full article…
And more
I closed my eyes – more or less – put my hand in the box of PubMed (huge repository of abstracts and references to top-level medical journal articles) and took out a bunch of relevant research to share it with you in this chapter. There is a lot more in PubMed for whoever cares to Read the full article…
41. A Cause is not a Cause, Especially if it is Psychological
If one always stops at material causes, then the psyche is being filtered out (and vice versa). Searching for ‘the real cause’ of a phenomenon is generally human, although it is also known that, in many cases, this search is oversimplifying things. It does encourage action, though, so it is a happy middle of the Read the full article…