| Title | Direct evidence for spinal cord involvement in placebo analgesia. |
| Author(s) | Eippert F, Finsterbusch J, Bingel U, Büchel C |
| Institution | Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. f.eippert@uke.uni-hamburg.de |
| Source | Science 2009 Oct 16; 326(5951):404. |
| MeSH | Adult
Analgesia
Analgesics
Humans
Lidocaine
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Pain
Pain Measurement
Pain Threshold
Placebo Effect
Placebos
Posterior Horn Cells
Spinal Cord
Young Adult
|
| Abstract | Placebo analgesia is a prime example of the impact that psychological factors have on pain perception. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging of the human spinal cord to test the hypothesis that placebo analgesia results in a reduction of nociceptive processing in the spinal cord. In line with behavioral data that show decreased pain responses under placebo, pain-related activity in the spinal cord is strongly reduced under placebo. These results provide direct evidence for spinal inhibition as one mechanism of placebo analgesia and highlight that psychological factors can act on the earliest stages of pain processing in the central nervous system. |
| Language | eng |
| Pub Type(s) | Journal Article
Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
|
| PubMed ID | 19833962 |
