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Placebo
The placebo effect works by convincing the mind that the treatment has real value. The mind believes in the treatment and manipulates the physical body, demonstrating a positive effect. The key to the placebo effect is the patient's faith in the legitimacy of the treatment. Any treatment can cause a placebo effect, including back surgery. The placebo effect is sometimes called “the sugar pill”, due to the vast number of drug studies that have compared an actual pharmaceutical product to an inert substance such as sugar. The sugar pill is sometimes used as a control group to determine useful effects of the actual product. The patient does not know whether they are receiving the actual product or a placebo. Psychologists use the term “it’s all in your mind” to describe the placebo effect. Placebo and Back PainI has a psycho-emotional dependency on chiropractic treatment for my chronic back pain for 18 years. The treatments never did anything to cure my pain condition, but somehow I felt that they were keeping my back from getting worse. Of course, the reality was that I was having a placebo effect from each spinal adjustment. The effect would keep my mind satisfied that I was doing something good for my back and therefore I thought it was helping me. Placebos can be helpful in the short term for symptomatic relief. They are harmful in the long term, since the back pain will continue forever or until a True Cure is found.Recommendation on the Placebo EffectI hear some pretty crazy placebo effects reported by back pain patients. I am always happy when a patient achieves some measure of relief, but I can’t help but fear that the pain might return in some back pain substitute condition. Remember that ANY treatment can function as a placebo. Looking back on my own pain, I recall many behaviors and therapies that seemed to help my pain. Now I know that these were simply perceptions with no basis in reality. Hindsight is 20/20, but living in the moment, it is almost impossible to differentiate between a perceived cure and the real deal… That is until the pain returns. Then, the difference is crystal clear.
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