Pain Relief Effectiveness Down To Mind-set?

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Pain Relief Effectiveness Down To Mind-set?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061222092853.htm

Research by the Human Pain Research Group at The University of

Manchester suggests that people's responses to placebo or " dummy "

pain relief varies according to their way of thinking.

A group of 40 pain-free volunteers took part in an experiment funded

by the Arthritis Research Campaign using an artificial pain

stimulus, and were led to expect reduced pain after the application

of a cream which was actually a placebo.

Lead researcher Alison said: " Any medical treatment involves

a placebo element; the psychological suggestion that it is going to

work. So we theorised that a proportion of any treatment's

effectiveness would relate to how much we wanted it to work,

believed in it or trusted the person administering it.

" Doctors and nurses can transmit a lot of information about a

treatment and its effectiveness through their words and gestures. We

know that when people visit their preferred GP the treatment or

advice they receive will be more effective than that given by a GP

they prefer not to see. Similarly, red pills have been shown to be

more effective than green ones; so we wanted to test whether all

this was due to expectations of successful treatment and trust in

the person giving it. "

24 of the volunteers initially received a moderately painful heat

stimulus to both arms. The placebo cream was then applied to the

skin, but they were led to believe that the cream on one of their

arms may be a local anaesthetic.

After the application of the cream, the intensity of the heat

stimulus was turned down on one arm without informing the volunteer.

Subsequently the intensity was returned to its previous level, but -

in contrast to the 16 people in the control group - 67% of the

treatment group continued to perceive the heat as less painful.

Alison said: " The expectation of pain relief leads to a release of

endorphins, the brain's natural pain killers, which is likely to

contribute to a sensation of reward and well-being.

" Interestingly, there was an exact split in the range of responses

to the placebo; a third of people reporting a reduction in the pain

intensity in the " treated " arm only, another third in both arms and

the remainder's intensity-ratings not being influenced by the

application of the cream. The different responses can be related to

the different levels of pain relief the volunteers expected, which

may have allowed their individual suggestibility to influence their

assessment of the pain experience.

" Our findings suggest that different individuals may have different

styles of placebo response, which is likely to affect how they

respond to real treatments too. Understanding these differences

could better inform the way doctors and nurses provide treatments in

the future.

" It could also facilitate more effective clinical trial design,

which could substantially reduce the costs of developing new pain

killers for patients with conditions like cancer and arthritis.

" A further, exciting possibility is that we could develop talking

and drug-based therapies to enhance people's response to placebos.

The experimental methods we're using will allow us to test out such

possibilities as a method of treating pain. "