Which treatments or illnesses are most susceptible to placebo?
July 26, 2016 1:29 PM Subscribe
Surgery? Fungal cream & athlete's foot? Cough drops? What are the easiest ways to trick the body to heal itself? And in which domains is the placebo near-impossible? Thanks in advance!
Pretty much anything to do with pain. The same level of pain is notoriously difficult to define as it is entirely subjective. Your mood and something as simple as a distraction level will change the amount of pain that you feel.
posted by koolkat at 2:10 PM on July 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by koolkat at 2:10 PM on July 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
The nature of the placebo also matters. I don't have citations handy at the moment, but in a course on the psychology of pain I learned that the more expensive and complicated the placebo, the better it works (for pain at least, don't recall what conditions were studied).
posted by snorkmaiden at 2:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by snorkmaiden at 2:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Just look at this:
Hypoalgesic_effect_of_swearing
Merely saying a word can decrease your pain, and there has been shown to be a greater reduction if you don't swear as much in normal conversation.
posted by koolkat at 1:25 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hypoalgesic_effect_of_swearing
Merely saying a word can decrease your pain, and there has been shown to be a greater reduction if you don't swear as much in normal conversation.
posted by koolkat at 1:25 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Parkinsons.
The treatment for Parkinsons - L-DOPA - also causes problematic gambling and hypersexuality.
posted by porpoise at 10:55 AM on July 27, 2016
The treatment for Parkinsons - L-DOPA - also causes problematic gambling and hypersexuality.
posted by porpoise at 10:55 AM on July 27, 2016
As for near-impossible, I'd hazard cannabis research.
posted by porpoise at 10:56 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by porpoise at 10:56 AM on July 27, 2016
Apparently, the immune system.
Also, seconding chronic pain. There's a lot in modern pain science focused on top-down processing and using the mind-body connection to "trick" the body into controlling pain: CBT-based pain management techniques, phantom limb pain and mirror box therapy, re-mapping disrupted brain maps of painful body parts, central sensitization, etc.
posted by stellarc at 2:53 PM on July 29, 2016
Also, seconding chronic pain. There's a lot in modern pain science focused on top-down processing and using the mind-body connection to "trick" the body into controlling pain: CBT-based pain management techniques, phantom limb pain and mirror box therapy, re-mapping disrupted brain maps of painful body parts, central sensitization, etc.
posted by stellarc at 2:53 PM on July 29, 2016
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posted by jessamyn at 1:38 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]