News You Can Use

Dr Jason Buhle

Pain relief is a compelling subject for people living with physical discomfort. Some new work suggests that there are two different ways you can use your brain to get some relief. The power of placebos has been long studied – if you think something is going to do you good then it can.

And distraction can also be useful in pain management – getting your mind off it really works. But are they the same effect? Apparently not according to this new research.

Dr Jason Buhle explained the experiment and what it means for pain relief to NewsUCanUse

The new study challenges the theory that the placebo effect is a high-level cognitive function. The authors—Jason T. Buhle, Bradford L. Stevens, and Jonathan J. Friedman of Columbia University and Tor D. Wager of the University of Colorado Boulder—reduced pain in two ways – either by giving them a placebo, or a difficult memory task. lacebo. But when they put the two together, “the level of pain reduction that people experienced added up. There was no interference between them,” says Buhle. “That suggests they rely on separate mechanisms.” The findings, published in Psychological Science, could help clinicians maximize pain relief without drugs.

In the study, 33 participants came in for three separate sessions. In the first, experimenters applied heat to the skin with a little metal plate and calibrated each individual’s pain perceptions. In the second session, some of the people applied an ordinary skin cream they were told was a powerful but safe analgesic. The others put on what they were told was a regular hand cream. In the placebo-only trials, participants stared at a cross on the screen and rated the pain of numerous applications of heat—the same level, though they were told it varied. For other trials they performed a tough memory task—distraction and placebo simultaneously. For the third session, those who’d had the plain cream got the “analgesic” and vice versa. The procedure was the same.

The results: With either the memory task or the placebo alone, participants felt less pain than during the trials when they just stared at the cross. Together, the two effects added up; they didn’t interact or interfere with each other. The data suggest that the placebo effect does not require executive attention or working memory.

So what about that neuroimaging? “Neuroimaging is great,” says Buhle, “but because each brain region does many things, when you see activation in a particular area, you don’t know what cognitive process is driving it.” This study tested the theory about how placebos work with direct behavioral observation.

The findings are promising for pain relief. Clinicians use both placebos and distraction—for instance, virtual reality in burn units. But they weren’t sure if one might diminish the other’s efficacy. “This study shows you can use them together,” says Buhle, “and get the maximum bang for your buck without medications.”

Source: Association for Psychological Science,

If there was an ipad size machine with electrodes that attach to your skull which enhanced your motor skills, your vision, your decision making, mathematical ability, language, memory, and attention. Who wouldn’t want one? And if the improvements lasted a year, with no side effects? Sold. That’s the promise of Transcranial direct current stimulation, but …

How you think about your illness may play a bigger part in how well you recover (or whether you don’t) thsan the actual severity of the disease according to a new paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science. Hear what Prof Keith Petrie told Bob Hughes about patient expectations about their diseases in this story

When we’re put on a box, we just aren’t as creative as when we escape and ‘think outside the box’ Dr Angela Leung of the Singapore Management University has found. And when we gesture with both hands (acting out ‘on the other hand’) we get more creative too. When people walk around a box – like a quadrangle they don’t get ideas that are as good as when they roam freely, too. And that applies even when people are moving an avatar in second life.

How do others see us and how do we see them? The science of ‘mind perception’ is the work of Professor Kurt Gray of the University of Maryland’s Mind Perception and Morality Lab. His work ranges from how people see those in a persistent vegetative state as worse than dead, to how people are more sympathetic to someone who’s a victim than a villain. Dr Gray examined how we see naked people differently. We don’t objectify them as popular culture suggests.

“If it bleeds, it leads,” goes the cynical saying with television and newspaper editors. In other words, most news is bad news and the worst news gets the big story on the front page. So one might expect major newspapers to contain, on average, more negative and unhappy types of words — like “war,” “ funeral,” “cancer,” “murder” — than positive, happy ones — like “love,” “peace” and “hero.” But it turns out to be the opposite.

Women who wrote about their most important values, like close relationships, music, or religion, lost more weight over the next few months than women who did not have that experience.

If you’re diagnosed with breast cancer these days you’ll have a better survival rate than women in previous decades. But there are still serious challenges to face after treatment. We know that up top half breast cancer survivors are depressed. Now, say a meditation technique can help breast cancer survivors improve their emotional and physical well-being.

Research at the Sinclair School of Nursing at the University of Missouri shows that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction which uses meditation, yoga and physical awareness can make a big difference.

“MBSR is another tool to enhance the lives of breast cancer survivors,” Professor Jane Armer said. “Patients often are given a variety of options to reduce stress, but they should choose what works for them according to their lifestyles and belief systems.”

Their program is eight to ten weeks of group sessions involving meditation skills, stress reduction and coping techniques. Breast cancer survivors who did the program lowered their blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate. Their mood improved, and mindfulness increased.

“Mindfulness-based meditation, ideally, should be practiced every day or at least on a routine schedule,” Armer said. “MBSR teaches patients new ways of thinking that will give them short- and long-term benefits.”

Professor Rebecca Mason Recently on these pages we’ve covered links between lack of Vitamin D in pregnancy and autism in children and the connection between Vit D deficiency and cognitive decline in older people. And there are links to MS, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes. Up to a billion people could not have enough of this vital substance in their bodies. Yet we get it from the effects of sunlight on skin. Perhaps our concern about skin cancer has gone too far.

Professor Rebecca Mason is a physiologist with the Bosch Institute in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney and a leading researcher on Vitamin D. She spoke to Bob Hughes about this essential ingredient for healthy living. And in the audio interview below she tells us just how much sunlight we need to get enough Vitamin D for good health.

News You Can Use

Audio

Pain relief – placebo and distraction – the double whammy

Brain power boost – Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh interview

Illness perceptions – Prof Keith Petrie audio interview

Literal Metaphors – Dr Angela Leung audio interview

Mind Perception – Dr Kurt Gray interview

As world happiness recedes, our language stays positive

Losing weight, through your values

Meditation, yoga helps with breast cancer

How much Vitamin D do we need?

Nutrition

Living Longer

In other research

Your Brain

Psychology of Health

Meditation

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