Do You Think the "Placebo Effect" is Due to Endorphins?

Question

K, I Can See Endorphins Playing a Big Role In Making Someone "Feel Better". but Probably Not the Only Brain Chemical At Work.

K, Interesting that Naloxone Blocks the Effect.

Thanks SAMI, but I Suspect a Considerable Amount of Interpretation is Going On.

Sehr_Klug 50, Yeah, Involved.

Answer 1

Placebo effect is a more complex isue that involves not only the secretion of endorphins.
It is entirely true, that in most subjects (92%) of the experimental group in the Minessota trial, (1999) the effect is reversed by opiate antagonist such as naloxone.
However, the issue gets more complicated, when we find, that there is an increase (in a matter of minutes), of the density of receptors for the serotonin protein carrier (STC) in the amygdala of the hyppocampus, and also, an increase of serotonine contents in the nucleus ceruleus, such as it happens with tryciclics (i.e. amitryptiline)....The mechanism of this increase is as yet unknown...
The discharges of he limbic system (from the mamilary bodies, to all the pericallosal circuit, temporal amygdala included) is slowed from 6-7 Hxz per second to 3 Hz as mean and mode values in the regresion scale......
It is well agreed that placebo works mainly by increasing the synthesis of Met-enkephalin, and Leuko-Enkephalin. (endorphins)
However, little has been researched on those effects, that have more effect in the mood of the subject, that purely the endorphin secretion....(effect on pain), because many placebos, are not aimed only to pain, but rather to mood states (depression, chronic fatigue. behavioral problems, and habits such as smoking) with inconstant results and success. (many patients with hysterical personality traits express feeling a strong increase of pain and discomfort after the administration of starch capsules of red color) as it happened in the Munchen trial of mood diseases outpatien clinic in 2 years of study.......
The mechanism is widely more complex and subtle that the increase of endorphins in the brainstem...and prefrontal supraorbital subcortex..
There are a lot of things we need to know about it (with analgesia by accupuncture and hypnosis, for instance, which are very primitive and yet very old tools in medicine)
There are so very many questions about the whole issue.....
Every solution, brings about new questions and problems, as a rule...

Answer 2

Beg to differ with SAMI.......endorphins (I think the count was 200+ 10 years ago and still growing........) most probably do play a big role in placebo effect. Apart from that what other neurotransmitters are there, is yet to be found out. Brain chemistry is still unexplored.
The human equivalent of the endorphin which mimics opiate effect is called Anandamine (for the exact chemical nomenclature please look up in the net).
Other endorphin effect compounds that have been implicated nowadays are simple 2-10 amino acid oligopeptides and literally there can be thousands of them, functioning both as endorphins, neurotransmitters, and even having hormone like effects.

Answer 3

Naloxone blocks only opiate action. Placebo is a remote type of hypnosis. The patient is strongly suggested that the placebo works. And so it works. I do not know if hypnosis also has a chemical basis. Some people are more suggestible than others. Hysterical women are the most suggestible and placebo almost always works in hysteria.

Answer 4

Yes, say, if arising as a response from subjects in a control group within an RCT to do with pain. Therefore, a placebo effect corresponding with a reduction in pain. Placebo is an aspect of human physiology but also necessarily a psychological effect arising from a flawed clinical trial--to do with the subject, experimenter, or experimental setting; a failure to implement a double blind study resulting in demand characteristics, experimenter biases, self-fullfiling prophecies. In the case of placebo effects that result in pain reduction, I would suspect that psychological factors effect the physical.

EDIT: No need to edit my answer, really, to try and address your comments, MdGreg C. Those who answered after me addressed them :-) :-) Awesome answers you guys! :-). Very educational for me :-). Thanx :-).

Answer 5

no it's not due to a hormone. simply, i think, it's just your subconscious playing nasty little tricks on you. if you believe anything hard enough, afterall, it DOES come true. ;] lol

Answer 6

no, I think it is our subconscious making us become whatever the end result is supposed to be.. or simpler terms - thinking ourselves well.