The study, led by Ulrike Bingel, MD, of the University of Oxford in England, exposed healthy patients to pain-provoking heat and gave them the opioid remifentanil. Some patients were told the drug would have no effect, while some were told the drug would lessen the pain and some were told the drug would worsen the pain. Patient brain activity was observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
The study found that patients who expected the drug to lessen their pain experienced double the analgesia of patients who expected no relief. Those told the drug would increase the pain obtained no analgesia but described their subjective pain as unchanged.
In the patients’ brain pathways, individuals who expected positive results showed activity in the endogenous pain modulatory system. Those who expected negative results demonstrated more activity in the hippocampus.
Read the Science Translational Medicine abstract on drug expectations and efficacy.
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