[Treatment of tinnitus with low-intensity laser]. / Behandling af tinnitus med lavenergi-laser.

UNLABELLED: This study evaluated the effect of low-power laser in the treatment of tinnitus in a randomized, prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The active laser applied 50 mW (cw, 830 nm) over a period of 10 minutes per session. Forty-nine patients were included. The main outcome was measured using psychoacoustical match of tinnitus loudness, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) ratings of subjective loudness, annoyance and attention involved, scores on tinnitus-specific questionnaires, and a number of psychosocial questionnaires. Only few subjects (18%) experienced subjective improvement. There were no statistically significant differences between the effects of the active laser and placebo treatments. CONCLUSION: Low-power laser treatment is not indicated in the treatment of tinnitus. Reports of significant benefits of this treatment in previous studies may be explained by the placebo effect.

[Placebo effect in the drug therapy of depression]. / Placebovirkningen i medicinsk behandling af depression.

This paper estimates the effect sizes of placebo treatment of depression from meta-analyses of antidepressive medicine, and examines methodological artifacts in antidepressive research. It is concluded that between one-half and two-thirds of the effects of antidepressive medicine are explained by placebo response with a mean difference between treatment and placebo groups around 25 percent. This modest effect size should probably be adjusted for methodological bias due to incomplete blindness and other sources of error favouring the medicine group. Some practical consequences of the fact that depression is a placebo sensitive disorder are outlined.

[Hyperhidrosis. Hypnotherapy of 2 patients with hyperhidrosis]. / Hyperhidrose. Hypnoterapeutisk behandling af to patienter med hyperhidrose.

Two cases of hypnotherapeutic treatment of psychogenic hyperhidrosis are presented. In both cases, organic aetiology could be excluded and conventional medical treatment modalities had no effect. In both cases, it was possible to modulate sweating in the trance state within less than a minute, thus supporting other reported cases of the effect of hypnotically induced modulation of autonomic responses. In the first case the psychological dynamics behind the physiological symptoms seemed unrelated to fundamental emotional and personal problems and relaxation and conditioning techniques in hypnosis had a positive effect in reducing the sweating to both objectively and subjectively socially acceptable standards. In the second case the hyperhidrosis was related to more fundamental personality problems and short term hypnotherapy proved ineffective in treating the condition.