Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Sugar pills relieve back pain as good as regular pain pills

#1
Magical Realist Offline
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...133542.htm

"Someday doctors may prescribe sugar pills for certain chronic pain patients based on their brain anatomy and psychology. And the pills will reduce their pain as effectively as any powerful drug on the market, according to new research.

Northwestern Medicine scientists have shown they can reliably predict which chronic pain patients will respond to a sugar placebo pill based on the patients' brain anatomy and psychological characteristics.

"Their brain is already tuned to respond," said senior study author A. Vania Apkarian, professor of physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "They have the appropriate psychology and biology that puts them in a cognitive state that as soon as you say, 'this may make your pain better,' their pain gets better."

There's no need to fool the patient, Apkarian said.

"You can tell them, 'I'm giving you a drug that has no physiological effect but your brain will respond to it,'" he said. "You don't need to hide it. There is a biology behind the placebo response."

The study was published Sept. 12 in Nature Communications.

The findings have three potential benefits:

Prescribing non-active drugs rather than active drugs. "It's much better to give someone a non-active drug rather than an active drug and get the same result," Apkarian said. "Most pharmacological treatments have long-term adverse effects or addictive properties. Placebo becomes as good an option for treatment as any drug we have on the market."

Eliminating the placebo effect from drug trials. "Drug trials would need to recruit fewer people, and identifying the physiological effects would be much easier," Apkarian said. "You've taken away a big component of noise in the study."

Reduced health care costs. A sugar pill prescription for chronic pain patients would result in vast cost savings for patients and the health care system, Apkarian said.
How the study worked

About 60 chronic back pain patients were randomized into two arms of the study. In one arm, subjects didn't know if they got the drug or the placebo. Researchers didn't study the people who got the real drug. The other study arm included people who came to the clinic but didn't get a placebo or drug. They were the control group.

The individuals whose pain decreased as a result of the sugar pill had a similar brain anatomy and psychological traits. The right side of their emotional brain was larger than the left, and they had a larger cortical sensory area than people who were not responsive to the placebo. The chronic pain placebo responders also were emotionally self-aware, sensitive to painful situations and mindful of their environment.

"Clinicians who are treating chronic pain patients should seriously consider that some will get as good a response to a sugar pill as any other drug," Apkarian said. "They should use it and see the outcome. This opens up a whole new field."
Reply
#2
C C Offline
"Back aches? I'm not surprised. Have you ever seen that Mr and Ms Dehydrated of the Year drink water? And it's not because their humps are the camel kind, either." --Miscue On Dapple Street

~
Reply
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  An implantable ice pack tries to relieve pain without opioids C C 0 66 Aug 8, 2022 09:03 PM
Last Post: C C
  Calcium pills may harm your heart + Baby food shortage has infants hospitalized C C 0 61 May 22, 2022 02:21 AM
Last Post: C C
  Stop pushing statins? + Transplanted pig heart had virus + Candy coated med pills C C 0 68 May 7, 2022 05:16 PM
Last Post: C C
  What explains our lower back pain? Anthropologists turn to Neandertals for answers C C 0 63 Mar 3, 2022 06:03 PM
Last Post: C C
  Regular consumption of sardines helps prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes C C 0 136 May 7, 2021 03:07 AM
Last Post: C C
  Sugar alters brain chemistry after only 12 days (failing to kill a myth) C C 0 158 Jan 19, 2020 01:19 AM
Last Post: C C
  Too much of a good thing? Very high levels of 'good' cholesterol may be harmful C C 0 441 Aug 27, 2018 06:07 PM
Last Post: C C
  Electroacupuncture may improve regulation of blood sugar in overweight & obese women C C 1 500 Apr 18, 2017 11:56 AM
Last Post: RainbowUnicorn
  My adventure with lower back pain Magical Realist 9 2,001 Jun 15, 2016 07:19 PM
Last Post: C C
  Polymer-coated ‘robotic pills’ may change healthcare C C 0 488 Jul 6, 2015 06:14 PM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)