Patients who knowingly took a placebo in conjunction with traditional treatment for lower back pain saw more improvement than those given traditional treatment alone.
"These findings turn our understanding of the placebo effect on its head," said joint senior author Ted Kaptchuk, director of the Program for Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Placebo Effects: Rare Insights-Psychological-Neurobiological-Implications
Placebo response is now generally well accepted. ‘Placebo response’ is the friend of the clinician and enemy of disease’.
Placebo response is now generally well accepted. ‘Placebo response’ is the friend of the clinician and enemy of disease’.
‘Patients who knowingly took a placebo in conjunction with traditional treatment for lower back pain saw more improvement than those given traditional treatment alone.’
"This new research demonstrates that the placebo
effect is not necessarily elicited by patients' conscious expectation
that they are getting an active medicine, as long thought. Taking a pill
in the context of a patient-clinician relationship - even if you know
it's a placebo - is a ritual that changes symptoms and probably
activates regions of the brain that modulate symptoms." Kaptchuk, with colleagues at Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA) in Lisbon, Portugal, studied 97 patients with chronic lower back pain (cLBP), which causes more disability than any other medical condition worldwide. After all participants were screened and examined by a registered nurse practitioner and board certified pain specialist, the researchers gave all patients a 15-minute explanation of the placebo effect. Only then was the group randomized into one of two groups; the treatment-as-usual (TAU) group or the open-label placebo (OLP) group.
The vast majority of participants in both groups (between 85 and 88%) were already taking medications - mostly non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) - for their pain. (Patients taking opioid medications were excluded from the trial.) Participants in both the TAU and OLP groups were allowed to continue taking these drugs, but were required not to change dosages or make any other major lifestyle changes, such as starting an exercise plan or new medication, which could impact their pain.
Placebo Response may be Enhanced by Intranasal Application of Hormone
Previous research has shown that the hormone oxytocin may mediate processes such as empathy, trust, and social learning.
Previous research has shown that the hormone oxytocin may mediate processes such as empathy, trust, and social learning.
At the end of their three-week course of pills, the OLP group overall reported 30% reductions in both usual pain and maximum pain, compared to 9% and 16% reductions, respectively, for the TAU group. The group taking placebo pills also saw a 29% drop in pain-related disability. Those receiving treatment as usual saw almost no improvement by that measure.
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Pain Relief Found to be Better With Combination of Placebos and Distractions
Using placebos together with a distraction that would keep a brain engaged in order to provide pain relief can help a patient, says a new study.
Using placebos together with a distraction that would keep a brain engaged in order to provide pain relief can help a patient, says a new study.
"Our findings demonstrate the placebo effect can be elicited without deception," said lead author, Claudia Carvalho of ISPA. "Patients were interested in what would happen and enjoyed this novel approach to their pain. They felt empowered."
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The Placebo Effect Identified
Researchers have identified genetic differences between placebo responders and non-responders, providing an important new clue to what has come to be known as the placebo effect.
Researchers have identified genetic differences between placebo responders and non-responders, providing an important new clue to what has come to be known as the placebo effect.
"You're never going to shrink a tumor or unclog an artery with placebo intervention," he said. "It's not a cure-all, but it makes people feel better, for sure. Our lab is saying you can't throw the placebo into the trash can. It has clinical meaning, it's statically significant, and it relieves patients. It's essential to what medicine means."
"Taking placebo pills to relieve symptoms without a warm and empathic relationship with a health-care provider relationship probably would not work," noted Carvalho.
Source-Eurekalert
