We have been receiving a LOT of media attention about Obecalp. Thanks.

Your support has been tremendous!

We applaud people from around the world who have the desire to express their opinion about Obecalp. We appreciate opinions, but appreciate peer reviewed papers published in reputable medical journals even more. We thank you for your positive stories about us and we are doing our best to respond to each question or concern on an individual basis. Due to the overwhelming response, it might take awhile to get back to you, but rest assured, we will respond.

Rather than express our opinions which might be looked upon as medical advice (we don’t give medical advice) we have found some peer reviewed papers and US Government information that we felt useful in our development and sales of Obecalp as the “first standardized, pharmaceutical grade placebo for sale on the Internet and at retail stores.”

Here is an extract from the email we send along to prospective media personnel prior to our interviews. Some of the information makes into our story. Sadly, a lot  of necessary information hits the cutting room floor. Normally the references which are not included are the most important to us and our customers.

Please remember that we do not give any medical advice. Obecalp is only a sugar tablet. It cannot treat or cure any type of illness. Anything we report is just a reference to information that we found and is readily available to anyone.

“Please review the following links prior to our interview. They were instrumental in the development of Obecalp. Number 4 is THE definitive and accepted answer (not just an opinion) about the ethical use of placebo. We could not have moved forward without number 4.

1. Columbia University study about the placebo effect.

2. Chicago study where close to half the ethical doctors claim to have given their patients a placebo.

3. Cough medicine for children as effective as placebo. Removed due to associated deaths. 

4. “The ethics of the placebo in clinical practice” peer reviewed and published by the BMJ’s Journal of Medical Ethics (link from our site)“Here

5. The NIH elicited researchers to study the ethical use of placebo in clinical practice.  “The proposed initiative is expected to stimulate investigator-initiated research investigations on how placebos and placebo effects impact on clinical practice. An important goal is to understand what factors are necessary to elicit a placebo effect in clinical practice so that the benefits of the therapeutic “intervention can be enhanced to improve health and promote wellness.” The entire document may be found here.

6. Other references to ethical placebo use.

Thanks.
Efficacy Brands LLC

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By CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN (NYTimes.com)

Jennifer Buettner was taking care of her young niece when the idea struck her. The child had a nagging case of hypochondria, and Ms. Buettner’s mother-in-law, a nurse, instructed her to give the girl a Motrin tablet.

iStockphoto

 

“She told me it was the most benign thing I could give,” Ms. Buettner said. “I thought, why give her any drug? Why not give her a placebo?”

Studies have repeatedly shown that placebos can produce improvements for many problems like depression, pain and high blood pressure, and Ms. Buettner reasoned that she could harness the placebo effect to help her niece. She sent her husband to the drugstore to buy placebo pills. When he came back empty handed, she said, “It was one of those ‘aha!’ moments when everything just clicks.”

Ms. Buettner, 40, who lives in Severna Park, Md., with her husband, 7-month-old son and 22-month-old twins, envisioned a children’s placebo tablet that would empower parents to do something tangible for minor ills and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and other medicines.

With the help of her husband, Dennis, she founded a placebo company, and, without a hint of irony, named it Efficacy Brands. Its chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward, goes on sale on June 1 at the Efficacy Brands Web site. Bottles of 50 tablets will sell for $5.95. The Buettners have plans for a liquid version, too. -continued-

I spent over three weeks in telephone calls and emails for this article. I must say that it is wonderfully accurate and well written. - Jen

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Deborah Smith Science Editor
MILLIONS of people taking commonly prescribed antidepressants could be wasting their time and money, research suggests.

A review of clinical trials of new generation antidepressant drugs, including Prozac and Aropax, found they were no more effective than a placebo, or sugar tablet, for most people with depression. The study included results that manufacturers had chosen not to publish, as well as data reported in scientific journals.

An international team used freedom of information laws to obtain all information on four members of the class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors which had been presented to the US Food and Drug Administration as part of the licensing process.

The team leader, Irving Kirsch, of the University of Hull in Britain, said the analysis showed that although patients got better when they took the antidepressants they also got better when they took a placebo, and the difference in improvement was not great.

“This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments,” said Professor Kirsch, whose study was published yesterday in the journal Public Library Of Science: Medicine.

Only a small group who were severely depressed at the outset showed a significant benefit from the drugs, the study found. But this was probably because they did not respond as well to the placebo, rather than the patients responding better to the drugs, it said.

-More-

Read the comments on Slashdot.org. They get right to the point. I, along with millions of people around the world am amazed. I think this story says more than I ever could. (except, if you need a pharmaceutical grade placebo, click here for Obecalp) - JB

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