Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

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The Placebo Effect

It is well known and understood.

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=31481

It occurs when an inactive substance such as sugar, distilled water, or saline solution is medically administered under the guise that it’s a real drug to treat a real disease, with supposed real benefits; whereupon the unknowing patient, because of expectation thinks its helpful.

Thereby (in some cases) the expectation causes the patient to thoroughly believe and act as if the “drug” made the condition better, with perceived reduction in symptom severity or duration.

All of this is psychologically-induced by belief or expectation, not by the “drug,” an utterly inactive substance. The actual nature of the “relief” is not an issue, whether or not actual pain perception, for example, was actually suppressed by the “drug.” The only consideration is patient's perception.

Concerning Anavex 2-73 and the patients that drug targets, the placebo effect has important considerations.

In the case of Alzheimer’s dementia and cognition decline, can there possibly be an authentic placebo effect, where mid- to mild-level Alzheimer’s patients a) cognitively understand what Anavex 2-73 is “supposed” to do for them, creating a placebo expectation, and b) are such patients capable of self-restoration of cognition by any sort of self-devised, internal psychological trickery?

Inasmuch as the dementia problems of Alzheimer’s are caused by cytological and histological dysfunctions in neurons and nerves directly involving several actual toxic chemicals and reaction cascades, there are simply no cases of any sort of placebo effects in Alzheimer's disease. Chemically difficult (well, impossible).

Very similar with Rett syndrome patients. First, these are neurologically compromised little girls. Their ability, at least in some cases, to understand that some new pill they will be taking should suppress their epileptic fits and motor neuron hyperactivities and poor muscle control is minimal, at best. Hard to conceive how they could formulate the expectations of improved health required for the placebo effect to actually happen.