Placebo by Proxy: How Does It Affect Pain Care?
by Zangani • 10 November 2011 • Pain News
Research consistently finds that patients’ beliefs and expectations of benefit from pain treatments can influence their responses, and that a considerable component of pain relief might relate to placebo effects. An often overlooked phenomenon is how the beliefs and expectations of healthcare providers and family members — engendering a placebo by proxy effect — also might affect a patient’s