Using Placebos to Relieve Pain

Placebo is considered a drug or other procedure with no pharmacological effects, used to relieve pain in the body. What it means by pharmacological effects is that it does not contain an active substance meant to affect health. It is considered anything that seems to be a “real” medical treatment but isn’t. They can be administered as a pill, shot, or some other type of fake treatment.

Most effects of placebos are to relieve pain, in which patients experience a decrease in such case. Medical scans of the brain and the spinal cord have shown a decreased response to pain as well. The placebo effect has focused on the relationship of mind and body how they related to each other and what similar or different characteristics they have in relationship. For example, one of the common theories is that this placebo effect is due to a person’s expectation. This means that if a person expects a pill to do something, it is possible that the body’s own chemistry with the help of his mind, it can cause effect similar to what a medication might have caused.

Just like the placebo effect can have positive effects on a patient, it can as well have negative effects. Some side effects that they might experience may be headaches, nausea, or drowsiness. A problem with the placebo effect is that it can be difficult to distinguish from the actual effects of a real drug during a study. There are studies that show that there are actual physical changes that occur with the placebo effect. Like an example with asthma patients, it shows less constriction of the bronchial tubes in patients for whom a placebo drug works. Other studies have documented increase in the body’s production of endorphins, one of the body’s natural pain relievers.

This means is that a placebo will be more likely to be effective if you maintain a positive mind that this pill will have a positive outcome when you use it. This video gives a general overview on how a placebo works, and why is it effective, it provides a few examples to show its effect. It also explains how in the past placebo effect wasn’t used as how it is used now by saying that now the placebo is being misused by patients when they experience pain.