Researchers Test Placebos in Pain Treatment

A placebo treatment is designed to look like a real medical treatment but does not contain any active ingredients or therapeutic elements intended to affect the condition being treated. A recent study explored how placebo treatments can reduce pain and why some people respond to them while others do not.
Researchers applied an inactive cream to participants’ hands while telling them it could reduce pain, then applied heat to test their pain responses. They found that people’s responses to placebo treatments for pain differ significantly. For some, positive expectations lead to reduced pain, while for others, the placebo might increase discomfort. These differences are reflected in distinct patterns of brain activity, shedding light on how the mind and body interact during pain relief.
The article, “The Two Sides of Placebo Analgesia: Differential Functional Connectivity Reveals Mechanisms of Placebo Analgesic Response” which was co-authored by Roland Staud, alongside researchers at both the University of Florida as well as The University of Minnesota, has been published in the Journal of Pain Research!