The placebo effects of different therapies are not identical, and patients who respond to one type of placebo may not respond to others, according to research from the USA. In a crossover study, researchers tested the analgesic effects of four treatments on pain sensitivity in 48 healthy volunteers. The four treatments were placebo pills, sham acupuncture, verum electro-acupuncture and a no-treatment control. Before and after each treatment each subject’s pain threshold and pain tolerance were measured for a calibrated heat pain, paired with a verbal suggestion of positive effect for the treatment. Subjects were additionally asked to complete an ‘Expectations for Relief Scale’ (ERS) after the treatment but prior to post-treatment pain testing, to indicate how much pain relief they expected from each particular treatment. The results showed that genuine acupuncture and placebo pills could significantly increase subjects’ pain threshold compared with the control. Read more at http://www.jcm.co.uk/research-archive/article/not-all-placebos-are-created-equal-2455/
