Are All Placebo Effects Equal? Placebo Pills, Sham Acupuncture, Cue Conditioning and Their Association

Placebo treatments and healing rituals have been used to treat pain throughout history. The present within-subject crossover study examines the variability in individual responses to placebo treatment with verbal suggestion and visual cue conditioning by investigating whether responses to different types of placebo treatment, as well as conditioning responses, correlate with one another. Secondarily, this study also examines whether responses to sham acupuncture correlate with responses to genuine acupuncture. Healthy subjects were recruited to participate in two sequential experiments. Experiment one is a five-session crossover study. In each session, subjects received one of four treatments: placebo pills (described as Tylenol), sham acupuncture, genuine acupuncture, or no treatment rest control condition. Before and after each treatment, paired with a verbal suggestion of positive effect, each subject's pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain ratings to calibrated heat pain were measured. At least 14 days after completing experiment one, all subjects were invited to participate in experiment two, during which their analgesic responses to conditioned visual cues were tested. Forty-eight healthy subjects completed experiment one, and 45 completed experiment two. The results showed significantly different effects of genuine acupuncture, placebo pill and rest control on pain threshold. There was no significant association between placebo pills, sham acupuncture and cue conditioning effects, indicating that individuals may respond to unique healing rituals in different ways. This outcome suggests that placebo response may be a complex behavioral phenomenon that has properties that comprise a state, rather than a trait characteristic. This could explain the difficulty of detecting a signature for “placebo responders.” However, a significant association was found between the genuine and sham acupuncture treatments, implying that the non-specific effects of acupuncture may contribute to the analgesic effect observed in genuine acupuncture analgesia.National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (U.S.) (R01AT005280

Avaliação das características orofaciais e da amamentação de recém-nascidos prematuros antes da alta hospitalar

RESUMO: Objetivo: avaliar as características orofaciais e a amamentação de recém-nascidos prematuros antes da alta hospitalar e verificar possíveis relações entre o sistema sensório motor orofacial e a amamentação. Métodos: trata-se de um estudo transversal, quantitativo e descritivo. A coleta de dados foi realizada no período de junho a outubro de 2014. Realizou-se em três etapas a pesquisa: busca de dados no prontuário, aplicação do protocolo de prontidão do prematuro para início da alimentação oral e aplicação do protocolo de avaliação da mamada em recém nascidos prematuros. Obteve-se uma amostra de conveniência em uma unidade de terapia intensiva de um hospital escola de Porto Alegre. Foram considerados critérios de inclusão: prematuridade; ter recebido atendimento fonoaudiológico, estar de alta hospitalar; indicação para aleitamento materno exclusivo; assinatura do termo de consentimento livre e esclarecido pelo responsável. Resultados: a amostra contou com 26 sujeitos, posteriormente 6 indivíduos foram excluídos. A maioria das características do sistema sensório motor orofacial dos prematuros estava adequada e a maior parte das categorias avaliadas na amamentação estava próxima ao escore máximo. Identificou-se que os prematuros com estado de consciência alerta apresentaram melhor posição mãe/recém-nascido durante o aleitamento materno (p= 0,043). Observou-se que quanto maior a idade gestacional corrigida melhor o escore final do prematuro na avaliação do sistema sensório motor orofacial (rs = 0,512; p= 0,021). Conclusões: elucidaram-se informações do sistema sensório motor orofacial e do aleitamento materno do prematuro. Bem como, foram encontradas relações entre o sistema sensório motor orofacial e a amamentação do prematuro

Effects of X-rays on Tuta absoluta for use in inherited sterility programmes

Tuta absoluta is a key pest of tomato crops originating from South America. The consequences of X-radiation on this species were studied under laboratory controlled conditions. The effect of radiation on adult emergence was evaluated exposing male and female pupae to increasing X-rays. Adult emergence decreased as doses of X-radiation increased, with the appearance of deformities such as malformed wings and bent legs at doses C350 Gy. Besides, males and females obtained from irradiated pupae were out crossed with untreated counterparts to explore the effects of X-radiation on inherited sterility. (a) Irradiated male 9 untreated female crosses. Both fecundity and fertility of the untreated females were reduced by radiation, and the effect was stronger as the doses increased. Neither the longevity of parental males and F1 adults nor the sex ratios of the F1 and F2 generations were affected by X-radiation (F1 and F2: first and second generation of descendants of irradiated adults). Inherited sterility effects weremanifested by a significant reduction in the F1 fecundity, F1 fertility, and the amount of larvae and pupae produced. Doses of 200?250 Gy could be used to induce inherited sterility in T. absoluta males. (b) Untreated male 9 irradiated female crosses. The minimum dose at which irradiated females were completely sterile was 200 Gy. The present study is the first study in T. absoluta that provides the starting point for implementing the inherited sterility in this species.Fil: Cagnotti, Cynthia Lorena. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Microbiología y Zoología Agrícola; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Viscarret, Mariana Mabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Microbiología y Zoología Agrícola; ArgentinaFil: Riquelme, Maria B.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Microbiología y Zoología Agrícola; ArgentinaFil: Botto, Eduardo Norberto. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Microbiología y Zoología Agrícola; ArgentinaFil: Carabajal Paladino, Leonela Zusel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Segura, Diego Fernando. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: López, Silvia N.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Microbiología y Zoología Agrícola; Argentin