Placebo Effect Study

>

60 测试新药安慰剂的疗效

DATE=6-21-01
TITLE=SCIENCE REPORT - Placebo¹ Effect Study
BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach

(Start at 59") This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Science Report.
Many Special English Science Reports discuss medical studies that test the (1) effect of a new (2) drug. Usually, a large number of people is divided into two groups. One group takes the medicine being tested. The other takes an (3) inactive substance called a "placebo."
The word "placebo" is Latin for "I shall please." Placebo (4) pills are usually made of sugar. No one knows which group is taking which substance. In such testing, the drug must perform better than the placebo to prove that it is (5) effective.
However, the people who take the placebos² often report improvements in their health. This is known as "the placebo effect" - pain that is eased or stopped by an inactive substance. Doctors have reported that the placebo effect can be used in (6) treatment. For example, a doctor tells a patient that a new drug will stop her pain. The pill is only sugar. But the patient does not know that. She takes the pill and says the pain is gone.
Belief in this placebo effect began with a medical study published in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. It said treatment with a placebo made patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. Experts think this is because the patients believed they were getting an effective treatment. A new study, however, questions the placebo effect.
(7) Danish researchers at the (8) University of Copenhagen and the Nordic Cochrane Center did the new study. They reported the results in The New England Journal of Medicine. They examined more than one-hundred studies from around the world (9) involving placebos. More than eight-thousand people were involved in the studies. They suffered from among forty different medical (10) disorders³.
The researchers found little evidence of (11) healing as the result of placebo use. They found no effect at all on (12) measurements such as (13) blood pressure or (14) cholesterol⁴ levels. They found evidence of a placebo effect only when patients reported feeling better.
The researchers said this improvement may have had nothing to do with the placebo at all. Or the patients may have been trying to please their doctors. The researchers said placebos should be used only for research purposes and not for treatment.
Experts say more studies are needed to show whether or not the placebo effect exists.
This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach and This is Bill White.

(1) effect [i`fekt] n.结果, 效果, 作用
(2) drug [drQg] n.药, 麻药, 麻醉药
(3) inactive [in`Aktiv] adj.无行动的, 不活动的, 停止的, 怠惰的
(4) pill [pil] n.药丸
(5) effective [i`fektiv] adj.有效的
(6) treatment [`tri:tmEnt] n.治疗
(7) danish [`deiniF] adj.丹麦的
(8) University of Copenhagen n. 哥本哈根大学
(9) involving [in`vRlviN] vbl.包括,使...陷于
(10) disorder [dis`R:d[] n.杂乱, 混乱, 无秩序状态
(11) healing [`hi:liN] n.康复, 复原
(12) measurement [`meVEmEnt] n.测量法, 度量
(13) blood pressure n. 血压
(14) cholesterol [kE`lest[r[Ul] n.胆固醇

1 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

2 placebos   

n.（给无实际治疗需要者的）安慰剂( placebo的名词复数 )；安慰物；宽心话；（试验药物用的）无效对照剂

参考例句：

• But, eventually, I think they were just kind of like placebos. 但是后来，我想它们只是安慰剂（安慰剂：没有任何药效的药） 来自电影对白
• But comparable numbers of those who received placebos also improved. 但是吃安慰剂的人的病情也改善了。 来自互联网

3 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。