Researchers offered patients with IBS either no treatment (assignment to a waiting list), sham acupuncture (needles placed in the 'wrong' positions), or sham acupuncture plus interaction with a caring clinician.
Patients said they had greater pain relief with sham acupuncture than with no treatment at all. And they said the combination of sham acupuncture plus compassionate interaction alleviated even more pain!
Does this kind of placebo effect mean that it doesn't matter where we place acupuncture needles, because they don't really work anyway? No! Pain is about something much more profound.
Pain, and really all symptoms, are literally 'in your head' in the sense that the brain must interpret pain in order for you to feel it. No pain is false, because if you feel it, it's real. So no pain relief is false, either.
By breaking the placebo effect into component parts, this study helps to confirm what many experts already believe: That caring, human interaction is a vital component of good medical care and gives real hope to patients in pain. There is no substitute!
The best medical care treats the whole person, combining the therapeutic benefits of a specific form of treatment with the therapeutic benefits of hope. This kind of cure cannot be put into a capsule or syringe!
The mind and body are connected, and pain in one is pain in the other. Treatments directed only toward a condition or organ system may not affect the emotional issues a patient may experience. Placebos may miss the condition or organ system, yet provide relief, because they address the big picture--which in turn gives hope and support to the whole person, organs and all!
So here's to medicine that treats the condition and the person. Because all symptom relief is real.
Related Links:
This is Your Brain on Illness
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