The placebo effect depends on the type of person
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Being a cheerful person, you can take advantage of your temperament and lifestyle and take advantage of the placebo effect. This is claimed by scientists from the University of Michigan.
According to researchers, the negative or positive effect of placebo does not depend on a person's mental state. It depends on the person's personality and the processes in his brain that are associated with getting pleasure and satisfaction. As is known, the placebo effect has an anesthetic effect and, according to scientists, the positive outcome of taking placebo may depend in part on the expectation of remuneration, increasing the level of dopamine and stimulating the release of endogenous painkillers called mu-opioids in the body.
If the results obtained in this study are confirmed, this could help scientists develop new medications and therapies where placebo could be used.
To better understand how the personality characteristics are related to the placebo effect, experts have recruited 47 healthy volunteers to the study. Each of their participants was scanned using a positron emission tomograph (PET). Initially, the volunteers were given an injection that did not cause pain, and 20 minutes later they gave an injection that caused pain. But at the same time, the volunteers were not informed in what order these injections are done, so that they would expect pain in each case. They were again subjected to the same procedure and scanned with a positron emission tomograph, but this time, every four minutes, they gave a placebo in the form of harmless injections, claiming that it was an anesthetic.
The positron emission tomograph measured mu-opioids from volunteers, and specialists recorded information about people's health from their words. The placebo effect was quite strong - every time after the introduction of pseudo preparations, participants reported a decrease in pain.
However, with a recorded increase in PET levels of mu-opioids, volunteers reported no reduction in pain.
Scientists concluded that only waiting to reduce the discomfort for the occurrence of the placebo effect is not enough.
In addition, scientists emphasize that people with certain traits (openness, altruism, kindness, cheerfulness) are more prone to the placebo effect.