New Research Planned into Arthritis Placebo Treatment
Posted Jan 17 2011 5:44pm
The University of Manchester is currently recruiting 90 people for an upcoming study into how placebos work. This group includes 30 with chronic, widespread pain, 30 with osteoarthritis and 30 healthy people as controls. The recruits will be from the musculoskeletal pain clinic at Hope Hospital in Salford and other pain clinics.
Most trials include some form of placebo in order to determine the true results of the tested treatment. Patients receiving a placebo frequently experience improvement in their symptoms due to the “power of suggestion” as opposed to any effect from an actual drug. It is this effect that researchers hope to bring light upon as potential treatments for chronic conditions, such as arthritis.
Neuro Rheumatology Professor Anthony Jones, of the Human Pain Research Group at Hope Hospital, is the research lead for a team that has been looking into the placebo effect for several years. His team has studied the body’s response to pain and how to measure anticipation of pain using EEG.
So far they have found that pain relief as a result of the placebo effect appears to be related to structures in the front of the brain that manage the anticipation of pain.
The planned study will look into the placebo effect on and osteoarthritis patients to determine if they release natural pain killers, known as “endogenous pain control mechanisms”.
The research team believes that people with chronic widespread pain have abnormalities the way that they anticipate and focus on pain. It is suggested that this results in them feeling greater pain than other people.
“Placebo can affect patients’ response to pain therapy and also influence the results of clinical trials,” said Professor Jones.
“We have shown that responses to experimental placebo alter how the brain responds to pain and, also, that responses to experimental placebo persist in repeated testing in healthy volunteers. This allows us to measure how the brain’s pain control system is being activated under different conditions.
“We hope this study will help us understand how the brain deals with pain, and is also likely to lead to the development of new pain-killing therapies and better ways of testing then.”
Originally posted 2008-08-08 21:47:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
The University of Manchester is currently recruiting 90 people for an upcoming study into how placebos work. This group includes 30 with chronic, widespread pain, 30 with osteoarthritis and 30 healthy people as controls. The recruits will be from the musculoskeletal pain clinic at Hope Hospital in Salford and other pain clinics.
Most trials include some form of placebo in order to determine the true results of the tested treatment. Patients receiving a placebo frequently experience improvement in their symptoms due to the “power of suggestion” as opposed to any effect from an actual drug. It is this effect that researchers hope to bring light upon as potential treatments for chronic conditions, such as arthritis.
Neuro Rheumatology Professor Anthony Jones, of the Human Pain Research Group at Hope Hospital, is the research lead for a team that has been looking into the placebo effect for several years. His team has studied the body’s response to pain and how to measure anticipation of pain using EEG.
So far they have found that pain relief as a result of the placebo effect appears to be related to structures in the front of the brain that manage the anticipation of pain.
The planned study will look into the placebo effect on and osteoarthritis patients to determine if they release natural pain killers, known as “endogenous pain control mechanisms”.
The research team believes that people with chronic widespread pain have abnormalities the way that they anticipate and focus on pain. It is suggested that this results in them feeling greater pain than other people.
“Placebo can affect patients’ response to pain therapy and also influence the results of clinical trials,” said Professor Jones.
“We have shown that responses to experimental placebo alter how the brain responds to pain and, also, that responses to experimental placebo persist in repeated testing in healthy volunteers. This allows us to measure how the brain’s pain control system is being activated under different conditions.
“We hope this study will help us understand how the brain deals with pain, and is also likely to lead to the development of new pain-killing therapies and better ways of testing then.”
Originally posted 2008-08-08 21:47:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter