Chronic disorders are debilitating for a lot of people. Imagine living everyday with some sort of ache or pain that just never subsists. Until now, the treatment forms have been nothing out of the ordinary, simply providing short term fixes and medications that actively work to repress the pain. While this is great for short term relief, eventually these medications will stop working or will have some adverse effects on the individual. A lot of medications also pose a risk of addiction, another risk taken just in order to manage pain. Recently however, studies have been investigating the effects of sugar pills on chronic pain.
While it may not be a new method of treatment for everyone, a recent study sought to determine what makes a good candidate for use of sugar pills. These sugar pills work on the basis of the placebo effect, an important reason why not everyone is a good candidate. However, this study found that for individuals who have a larger right side of their emotional brain, as well as a larger cortical sensory area, the placebo effect works wonders for their pain management. This study was based on the results of 60 individuals suffering from chronic back pain and while it proves nothing definite yet, this could be a remarkable treatment in the future.
Imagine a world where a large portion of individuals could take nothing other than sugar pills to get through any pain they face every day. This is a very likely future in medicine. Not only does this limit expenses, it also improves overall health and quality of life. No more negative side effects and no more everyday discomfort. Though this treatment may not be substantial for everyone, it would still have quite an impact on the world of medicine.
Posted by Alexandra McGuire (5)
This study definitely will have a great impact on making strides in order to find better alternatives to pain management. With so many physicians cutting back on prescription pain medication because of their causes for addiction i think that this could really help reduce the amount of people who are on pain killers but really don't need to be! Do you know if there have been other studies done to back this one or to counter it?
ReplyDeletePosted by: Katarzyna Mosio
I haven't found any other studies related to this at this time, but I do imagine there will be more done soon as this could have such a large impact. I think further investigation needs to be done to quantify some of the characteristics discussed in this study so they can be applied to specific individuals, but that the results could be really amazing!
DeleteAlexandra McGuire
This is a really interesting phenomenon, and while it seems promising, I question the ability to capitalize on this finding. In order for the sugar pills to have their placebo effect, doesn't the patient have to be unaware of the lack of medicine they are consuming? If this is the case, wouldn't doctors have to essentially lie to their patients in order for the treatment to work? The morality of these seems questionable to me.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jamie Downer
I had similar concerns when I originally looked into this article, however they do state that individuals can be fully aware of the fact that they are not consuming actual medicine. I believe the study reports the ability to tell the patients that while this medication will have no physiological effect, it could reduce their pain, and that it still works under these circumstances due to the conditions of the individuals brain discussed!
DeleteAlexandra McGuire
The placebo affect is very interesting the sugar pill is one way of implementing it but is there other ways of being able to use these affect other than sugar pills? If sugar pills could help patients recover than it could save a lot of money for both patients and the people providing them.
ReplyDeleteposted by "Edwin Montecinos"
I find it really interesting that the individual's brain is involved in how effective it is. I wonder what other traits actually enable really great results from placebos in other situations.
ReplyDeletePosted By Andrew Davis
I agree that it's really intriguing that brain structure appears to have such a large effect. I think there must be some underlying reasons as to how the specific structures contribute to processing or personality and I'm very interested in what these would be.
DeleteAlexandra McGuire
This is fascinating. However even if it does prove to be effective for patients with chronic pain, I wonder if patients will actually accept this as a form of medication once they know it is a placebo. It also seems unlikely that this will ever be able to be advertised and profited off of as a medicine for chronic pain. It is great that it works for some people but I'm not sure how well it will do in the long run.
ReplyDeletePosted by Alexandra Rios
The placebo effect, in itself, is a fascinating study whenever researchers are testing a new drug and in how a body reacts when given these sugar pills that in some cases the patient feels a relief from whatever they are suffering. How exactly did they determine that the size of certain regions of the brain corresponds to the patient having any type of result from receiving the sugar pill? Have there been any results to the study you read and specifically of the 60 how many felt relief from the sugar pill? finally, I wonder how effective these sugar pills will be in the long run... I wonder if eventually the pain will outweigh the brains false euphoria of relief or not.
ReplyDelete-MAddie Powers
This was really interesting to read, because new drugs are being made all the time for similar purposes. I wonder why they can't just enhance those sugar pills to take longer affect than they do now - or is it just not possible at all. Also, what exactly does it mean for something to just have a placebo effect, especially when it comes to a pill?
ReplyDelete-Han Nguyen