Zeebo® Placebo Tablets were launched two years ago in the US on amazon. Recently we expanded our online retail presence to Walmart. As of last week, CVS cleared its shelves of problematic decongestants, which are basically placebo with active ingredients & side effects, making space for, I want to suggest, pure honest placebo. https://zeeboeffect.com/placebo-tablets-zeebos-latest-product-release/
Zeebo Effect
@zeeboeffect
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Placebo pills and tablets from the original US placebo brand. We provide custom placebo for clinical trials and Zeebo® branded Pure Honest Placebo for consumers.
@arstechnica no active ingredients - less potential for harm.
Letter to the Editor at Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics - Karger Publishers "Are Conditioned Open Placebos Feasible as an Adjunctive Treatment to Opioids?"
Results from a Single-Group Dose-Extender Pilot Study with Acute Pain Patients
(study used Zeebo as open placebo)
https://karger.com/pps/article/88/6/380/283172/Are-Conditioned-Open-Placebos-Feasible-as-an
Results from a Single-Group Dose-Extender Pilot Study with Acute Pain Patients
(study used Zeebo as open placebo)
https://karger.com/pps/article/88/6/380/283172/Are-Conditioned-Open-Placebos-Feasible-as-an
Are Conditioned Open Placebos Feasible as an Adjunctive Treatment to Opioids? Results from a Single-Group Dose-Extender Pilot Study with Acute Pain Patients
Dear Editor,Over 11 million people in the United States report opioid misuse, almost exclusively (>90%) from prescription opioids [1]. Doctors are facing increasing pressure to reduce opioid prescriptions, particularly for acute pain. In the United States, nearly 50% of the states passed legislation between 2016 and 2017 that regulated initial opioid prescriptions for these patients [2]. The World Health Organization, amid allegations that they were unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, rescinded liberal opioid prescription guidelines. Physicians will likely need to utilize methods of pain control that rely less heavily on opioids. Research from placebo studies suggests that nonspecific factors are powerful [3]. Placebos can be effective analgesic agents [4, 5] particularly when administered following a classical conditioning procedure [4]. Moreover, since an early report [6], there is growing evidence that demonstrates placebos may be effective even when given without deception as an open placebo, or as a “dose-extender” of active medication [7]. The goal of the present study was to examine the feasibility of conditioned open placebos as an adjunctive treatment to opioids for acute pain. If feasible, this approach could lay the groundwork for designing new pain management protocols that reduce reliance on prescription opioids.We recruited participants (70% female, average age = 43.4 [SD = 15.99]) undergoing surgery from a hand surgery practice (n = 6) or with acute upper extremity pain from an emergency department (n = 4). All patients were prescribed a short-term supply of opioid medication after emergency department discharge or hand surgery, did not have chronic pain, and had not used opioids on most days in the past 3 months. During baseline, we gave participants 45 white and blue placebos (Zeebo® brand) in a bottle that listed placebo ingredients and provided intake instructions. A brief conversation ensued that entailed four discussion points (full script in online supplementary information; for all online suppl. material, see www.karger.com/doi/10.1159/000503038): (1) opioids work by telling your body you are not experiencing as much pain; (2) placebos should be taken every time an opioid is taken; (3) by pairing the pills together “your brain will learn to release chemicals like endorphins that cause pain-relief in response to the placebo, just as it does in response to the [opioid]”; and (4) at a certain point, placebos alone might provide adequate relief, and you could take placebos not paired with opioids. Participants also watched a 90-s video clip describing a prior open label placebo trial.For 7 days after the baseline session, we conducted daily phone assessments with participants to measure pain on an 11-point scale (0 = no pain at all, 10 = worst pain imaginable), and opioid and placebo intake (response rate = 98.6%). Participants completed an exit interview about 1–2 weeks after the final assessment during which they shared: what they thought was in the placebos; whether the explanation about why placebos might work was clear; and whether anything about the study was misleading. Participants rated how easy it was to take placebos (from 1 [very easy] to 5 [very difficult]), and how helpful they thought placebos and opioids were in relieving pain (from 1 [definitely helpful] to 5 [definitely not helpful]). Due to concern that participants might overreport placebo use, participants also counted how many placebos were remaining in the bottle (completed by 9/10 participants). All policies and procedures were approved by the institutional review board.When asked what was in the placebo, 7/10 participants gave responses firmly consistent with it being inactive (e.g., “sugar pill”), while 3/10 gave ambiguous replies (e.g., “something to calm me”). No one outright suggested the pills had active substances, and no participant, including the n = 3 who gave ambiguous replies, said any part of the study was misleading. All participants reported understanding the explanation of placebo efficacy. When asked to summarize the explanation, 9/10 participants gave a reply that was consistent with some aspect of the script.As shown in Table 1, 9/10 participants took at least one opioid pill (mean = 3.30, SD = 2.83); 100% of the opioids were paired with a placebo, as instructed. Nine of 10 participants took at least one placebo not paired with opioids. The average number of non-paired placebos was 7.45 (SD = 5.75). Among the 9 participants who completed the pill count, the total number of placebos taken (paired and unpaired) was mean = 10.22 (SD = 6.74)1 according to self-report, and mean = 16.67 (SD = 9.99) according to the pill count. This suggests that, contrary to our concern, participants either underreported placebo use or continued to take placebos between the final phone assessment and the exit questionnaire. Consistent with the latter possibility, 1 participant called the researcher after the study ended to ask whether they could continue taking placebos.Participants reported the placebos were very easy to take (mean = 1.10, SD = 0.36). Pain relief scores from the placebos (mean = 2.60, SD = 1.78) and opioids (mean = 1.89, SD = 1.45) (lower numbers indicate more analgesia) were not significantly different, Wilcoxon Z = 0.97, p = 0.33. Pain ratings were lower at the day-7 (mean = 3.80, SD = 2.57) versus the day-1 follow-up (mean = 6.40, SD = 2.68), t(9) = 3.70, p = 0.005.This study suggests that conditioned open placebos, as an adjunct to opioids, are feasible among acute pain patients. Participants mostly understood they were taking inactive pills, adhered perfectly to the instructions about pairing placebos with opioids, and even took substantially more placebos then specifically instructed. Of particular interest, participants reported reasonably strong pain relief from placebos that was not significantly different from opioid analgesia, albeit in a highly underpowered test.We have previously argued that placebos could be used as one way of fighting the opioid crisis by minimizing the amount of narcotics patients take [8]. Although a randomized trial would need to be conducted to draw such a conclusion, these data are consistent with that suggestion. Learned placebo responses could be incorporated into opioid treatment protocols. The approach outlined here, where placebos are paired with opioids prior to being taken unpaired, is one promising possibility. Other cues with unique visual or taste properties could be taken with placebos as an unconditioned stimulus [9], to further maximize the placebo response in the hope of minimizing drug use. While the present study focused on acute pain, these designs might be translatable to opioid use by chronic pain patients as well.Some patients made statements to suggest the placebos were opioid sparing such as: “When I was in pain and I would have taken a Vicodin, I took a placebo instead, and I didn’t need a Vicodin.” Limitations include the small sample size and the lack of a comparison group. Additionally, assessments were conducted by the principal investigator, which could exacerbate demand characteristics [10]. The promising feasibility findings across two settings suggest conditioned open placebos might have appeal to acute pain patients.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of: Jeanine Spikes, Andrew Hresko, Christina Parnagian, Eva Suarez, Sara Hunt, Dan Strauss, Abbey Haynes, and Erin Ryan.The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.This work was supported by an Early Career Psychologist Award from the Society of Addiction Psychology (recipient: -Bernstein), K01DA048087 (principal investigator: Bernstein), T32DA016184, and the COBRE on Opioids and Overdose P20 GM125507 (principal investigator: Rich).Dr. Bernstein led all aspects of this project. He was assisted in study design by: Magill, Weiss, Kaptchuk, Rich, and Beaudoin. He was assisted in the development of the placebo administration script by: Magill, Kaptchuk, Kirsch, Mach, and Beaudoin. Magill, Rich, Becker, and Beaudoin helped develop the questionnaire. Magill, Kirsch, Blease, and Beaudoin helped conceive of statistical analyses and data presentation. Magill, Kaptchuk, Blease, Kirsch, Rich, Becker, and Beaudoin helped with manuscript preparation. Weiss and Mach were integral to data collection. Bernstein, Weiss, and Beaudoin solidified the patient sample.
Knowable Magazine on Zeebo and placebo pills "Rebranding placebos
Harnessing the power of sham therapies for real healing might require a new lexicon"
https://knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2017/rebranding-placebos
Harnessing the power of sham therapies for real healing might require a new lexicon"
https://knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2017/rebranding-placebos
Zeebo Placebo Pills mentioned in The Guardian article Placebos expert Kathryn T Hall: ‘The effect can rival painkillers like ibuprofen or even morphine’
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/08/placebos-expert-kathryn-t-hall-effect-painkillers-interview
#placebo #pain
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/08/placebos-expert-kathryn-t-hall-effect-painkillers-interview
#placebo #pain
Opinion article by Uwe Heiss, Zeebo Effect founder in Frontiers Journal "Can the Open Label Placebo Rationale Be Optimized?"
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2021.734882/full
#placebo
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2021.734882/full
#placebo
Can the Open Label Placebo Rationale Be Optimized?
The success of OLP treatment for chronic pain in clinical trials (Kaptchuk, Hemond, & Miller, 2020) holds promise for the eventual application of placebo in routine pain management. In preparation for a clinical OLP roll-out, it is prudent to optimize OLPs for obtaining the maximum treatment effect. The first-author has previously identified three components (Algorithm, Rationale, Placebo pill) of effective and safe placebo treatment design (Heiss, 2016). As shown in Table S1, the algorithm refers to the identification of instances where an OLP may be beneficial and feasible, the placebo pill refers to the physical features of the placebo. The focus of this article is the Rationale, which is the explanation given to the patient when administering an OLP.The OLP rationale refers to a verbal message wherein patients are told they are receiving a placebo and provided with an explanation regarding why the placebo may work. Almost every study that tested the effect of OLP included a rationale (though see Kam-Henson et al., 2014). As such, patients do not just take a placebo, they are also told why taking a placebo might be efficacious. Both of these elements -the pill and the rationale -are important treatment components (Blease et al., 2019). In fact, in the only study to date where the presence of a rationale was manipulated, Locher et al. (2017) found that OLPs with a rationale reduced experimentally-induced pain more than OLPs without a rationale. However, while this study ...
Zeebo® Placebo Pills in Journal for Pain
Effects of open-label placebo on pain, functional disability, and spine mobility in patients with chronic back pain: a randomized controlled trial
https://journals.lww.com/pain/abstract/2019/12000/effects_of_open_label_placebo_on_pain,_functional.22.aspx
#placebo #pain
Effects of open-label placebo on pain, functional disability, and spine mobility in patients with chronic back pain: a randomized controlled trial
https://journals.lww.com/pain/abstract/2019/12000/effects_of_open_label_placebo_on_pain,_functional.22.aspx
#placebo #pain
Zeebo® in Nature Journal
Effects of open-label placebos on test performance and psychological well-being in healthy medical students: a randomized controlled trial
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-81502-2
#placebo
Effects of open-label placebos on test performance and psychological well-being in healthy medical students: a randomized controlled trial
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-81502-2
#placebo
Effects of open-label placebos on test performance and psychological well-being in healthy medical students: a randomized controlled trial - Scientific Reports
Psychological distress is prevalent in students and can predispose to psychiatric disorders. Recent findings indicate that distress might be linked to impaired cognitive performance in students. Experimental findings in healthy participants suggest that placebo interventions can improve cognition. However, whether non-deceptive (i.e., open-label, OLP) placebos can enhance cognitive function and emotional well-being is unclear. Using a randomized-controlled design we demonstrate a positive impact of OLP on subjective well-being (i.e., stress, fatigue, and confusion) after a 21-day OLP application in healthy students during midterm exams. OLP did not improve test performance, but, within the OLP group, test performance was positively correlated with measures of general belief in the benefit of medication. These results show that OLP can counteract negative effects of acute stress on psychological well-being and might improve cognitive performance if supported by positive treatment expectations. Additionally, our findings in healthy volunteers warrant further investigation in exploring the potential of OLP in reducing stress-related psychological effects in patients. The trial was preregistered at the German Clinical Trials Register on December 20, 2017 (DRKS00013557).
Zeebo featured by Forbes Magazine "Even If Your Doctor Tells You That Pill Is A Placebo, It Might Still Make You Feel Better"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ritarubin/2017/05/31/even-if-your-doctor-tells-you-that-pill-is-a-placebo-it-might-still-make-you-feel-better/?sh=49b664802801
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ritarubin/2017/05/31/even-if-your-doctor-tells-you-that-pill-is-a-placebo-it-might-still-make-you-feel-better/?sh=49b664802801
Time Magazine interview with Uwe Heiss, founder of Zeebo Effect
https://time.com/5375724/placebo-bill-health-problems/
https://time.com/5375724/placebo-bill-health-problems/
