{"id":1439,"date":"2014-05-21T17:49:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T17:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2021-07-26T10:11:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T10:11:34","slug":"drugs-work-better-if-you-know-youre-getting-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/drugs-work-better-if-you-know-youre-getting-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Drugs Work Better if You Know You\u2019re Getting Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1441\" style=\"width: 286px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1441\" class=\"wp-image-1441 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper-276x300.jpg\" alt=\"whisper\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper-276x300.jpg 276w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper.jpg 332w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 276px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 276\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1441\" class=\"wp-image-1441 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper-276x300.jpg\" alt=\"whisper\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper-276x300.jpg 276w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/whisper.jpg 332w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">image: iStock photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Imagine the scenario: There\u2019s 2 patients. One is connected to a morphine drip while he\u2019s reading a book and the other is being given a morphine injection by the doctor. They\u2019re both given morphine at the exact same time. One is aware of it but the other isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019d think they\u2019d both need the same amount of the drug, wouldn\u2019t you? Well, it turns out that how much they actually need depends on whether they know about the morphine or not.<\/p>\n<p>On average, people receiving morphine for pain need about 12mg to get the painkilling effect. But that\u2019s only if they don\u2019t know they\u2019re getting it. If it\u2019s administered in full view, they don\u2019t need nearly so much to get the same effect.<\/p>\n<p>The same kind of thing has been shown with diazepam. People sometimes get diazepam for anxiety after an operation. It turns out that the diazepam only works if the patients know they\u2019re receiving it. If they don\u2019t know they\u2019re getting it then it doesn\u2019t work. Weird isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>The reason is that it\u2019s all in your mind!<\/p>\n<p>Chemistry will play itself out in exactly the same way a hundred times out of a hundred in a test tube. But once you put human consciousness in the test tube, in other words the test tube is technically the human body, the chemistry is swayed left or right, so to speak, depending on what\u2019s going on in your mind, depending on what you believe.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true. What we believe shifts chemistry in our brains and bodies. If a person is given a placebo instead of morphine, but believes that it\u2019s morphine and therefore believes in the pain killing effect, their brain produces a natural version of morphine to carry out the job of giving them what they are expecting to happen, i.e. a reduction in pain. The natural versions are known as endogenous opiates.<\/p>\n<p>So when a person is receiving morphine from the doctor, who is administering it in plain sight, their belief in what morphine does produces endogenous opiates. So because the endogenous opiates are there to provide part of the pain killing effect, the patient doesn\u2019t actually need as much morphine.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine what it could mean for medicine if we could harness the placebo effect like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine the scenario: There\u2019s 2 patients. One is connected to a morphine drip while he\u2019s reading a book and the other is being given a morphine injection by the doctor. They\u2019re both given morphine at the exact same time. One is aware of it but the other isn\u2019t. You\u2019d think they\u2019d both need the same&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[215,255,256,94,257,20,60],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drugs Work Better if You Know You\u2019re Getting Them - David R Hamilton PHD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Imagine the scenario: There\u2019s 2 patients. One is connected to a morphine drip while he\u2019s reading a book and the other is being given a morphine injection\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/drugs-work-better-if-you-know-youre-getting-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drugs Work Better if You Know You\u2019re Getting Them - David R Hamilton PHD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imagine the scenario: There\u2019s 2 patients. 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