The Placebo Effect: Fake Pills Identified As Back Pain Relief

Back pains can trigger people to be irritated. Sometimes it is caused by heavy work out or lifting something heavy. For some people, they have a chronic back pain that once  triggered the pain comes back. In a new study, experts have identified the placebo pills or "Fake Pills" can ease back pains.

In a report by Health Day, people who suffer from chronic back pain may get a comfort by taking placebo drugs. Recently, experts discovered that patients that took placebo pills knowingly while undergoing traditional treatment for lower back pain experience a relief compared to those who undergo traditional treatment alone.

Ted Kaptchuk, a joint senior author of the study and director of the Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston said that "This new research demonstrates that the placebo effect is not necessarily elicited by the patients' conscious expectation that they are getting an active medicine, as long thought. These findings turn our understanding of the placebo effect on its head."

In the study, researchers experimented 97 patients that experience chronic back pain. In a 15 minute briefing regarding the placebo effect, researchers then gave the fake pill to the volunteers. Most of the participants were already under medication for their pain that includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) but none of them are taking opioids.

The experts then divided the patients into two groups. The first one has only received the traditional treatment. The second group received a traditional treatment and a bottle of "placebo pills." Experts noted that the bottle was labeled "Placebo Pills" so that the volunteers were aware that they are taking fake pills.  

As a result, researchers found that in three weeks time  the traditional treatment group reported that there is a 9 percent drop in their usual amount of pain and 16 percent less in their maximum pain. As for the placebo group, they reported that there is a 30 percent reduction in their usual and maximum pain levels.

However,  Kaptchuk  stated that "It's not a cure-all, but it makes people feel better, for sure. Our lab is saying you can't throw the placebo into the trash can. It has clinical meaning, it's statically significant, and it relieves patients," according to Express.