Spine, brain work together in placebo

HAMBURG, Germany, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- An area of the spine called the dorsal horn works with the brain to activate the so-called placebo effect, German scientists said.

"We've shown that psychological factors can influence pain at the earliest stage of the central nervous system, in a similar way to drugs like morphine," said researcher Falk Eippert, of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

The placebo effect involves people benefiting from remedies that contain no active pain-relief ingredients. When patients expect a remedy to be effective, the brain releases natural endorphins, which tell the spinal cord to suppress incoming pain signals, Eippert told The Times of London.

Eippert and his team scanned the spinal cords of 15 healthy volunteers who received pricks from a laser to their hands. The volunteers were told a pain-relief cream had been applied to their hands, when in fact there was no pain-relief remedy in the cream.

The volunteers, overall, reported feeling 25 percent less pain after the placebo cream was applied, with significantly reduced activity noted in the dorsal horn, which transmits pain signals to the brain, Eippert said.