Title
Merely possessing a placebo analgesic reduced pain intensity : preliminary findings from a randomized design
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Current Psychology
Publication Date
4-2017
Volume
Advance online publication
Publisher
Springer New York LLC
Keywords
Placebo effect, Mere possession, Cold pressor, Placebo analgesia, Pain
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to examine whether the mere possession of a placebo analgesic cream would affect perceived pain intensity in a laboratory pain-perception test. Healthy participants read a medical explanation of pain aimed at inducing a desire to seek pain relief and then were informed that a placebo cream was an effective analgesic drug. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive the cream as an unexpected gift, whereas the other half did not receive the cream. Subsequently, all participants performed the cold-pressor task. We found that participants who received the cream but did not use it reported lower levels of pain intensity during the cold-pressor task than those who did not receive the cream. Our findings constitute initial evidence that simply possessing a placebo analgesic can reduce pain intensity. The study represents the first attempt to investigate the role of mere possession in understanding placebo analgesia. Possible mechanisms and future directions are discussed.
DOI
10.1007/s12144-017-9601-0
Print ISSN
10461310
E-ISSN
19364733
Funding Information
This research was part of a larger project supported by a Faculty Research Grant (FRG #02133) to the first author. {FRG #02133}
Publisher Statement
Copyright © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Yeung, V. W. L., Geers, A. & Kam, S. M.-C. (2017). Merely possessing a placebo analgesic reduced pain intensity: Preliminary findings from a randomized design. Current Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s12144-017-9601-0
