Chelsea Parris
Oct 16 2009
12:56pm
This article discusses how the placebo effect may help treat pain. When someone experiences the placebo effect, they're responding to an inactive drug or sham procedure that isn't supposed to affect their condition. The placebo effect is psychological because the brain believes it's getting real help even though the placebo itself doesn't contain anything helpful. German researchers report that when it comes to pain, the placebo effect affects activity in part of the spinal cord called the dorsal horn. There was a study preformed using 15 healthy men. The researchers applied heat to the men's arms in order to gauge their pain threshold. Next, they treated the men's arms with two identical, inactive creams. But the researchers told the men that one of the creams was "an extremely effective painkiller" and that the other cream was a control cream. Finally, the researchers applied heat to the treated areas of the arms to stimulate the sense of pain. When the men's arms were treated with the fake painkiller cream before being subjected to heat, they reported less pain than when their arms were treated with the control cream. So they experienced the placebo effect.
This study was so interesting to me. I wonder if the placebo effect would work in more severe cases. Like if someone was burned and were given a cream that really wasn't helpful but they thought it was, would they no longer feel the pain? I kind of doubt that the placebo effect would work in severe cases. It's almost like hypnosis I feel. If it does work in other cases, that would be phenomenal.
http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20091015/placebo-effect-may-help-treat-pain
2 comments:
I wonder the same, as far as how would it work in more severe cases. But, great read and interesting article.
I have heard of the placebo effect for many years. I personally believe that it is something that is true and needed to be further researched.
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