Better Living Through Psychology

Take a look at this article from MSNBC:
Placebo’s power goes beyond the mind

For years, scientists have looked at the placebo effect as a nuisance – just a figment of overactive patient imaginations. People who got a dummy medication as part of a clinical trial believed they were better, but really weren’t. But new research shows that belief in a dummy treatment leads to changes in brain chemistry.

and another excerpt says:

Recent reports show that anticipation of relief from a placebo can lead to an actual easing of aches, when the brain makes more of its own pain-dousing opiates. Brain scans of Parkinson’s patients show increases in a chemical messenger called dopamine, which leads to an improvement in symptoms when patients think “mistakenly” that they are receiving real therapy.And studies in depressed patients … have found that almost as many are helped by placebo treatments as by actual medications. In fact, as it turns out, a person’s response to placebo treatment may offer clues as to whether œreal treatments with antidepressants are likely to work.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Firstly, it’s more backing for the notion that the patient’s motivation and belief in the treatment method has at least some curative effect. In the psychotherapy outcome research it’s well established that the client’s motivation to get well along with their belief in the counsellor have more influence over a successful outcome than the treatment approach or techniques of the therapist.

HOW CAN I USE IT?

• It’s tempting when you’re in pain to focus on how bad the pain makes you feel, when it will pass and what you can do to stop it. Understandable, but such thinking really reinforces the notion that “the pain is here now and I don’t like it!” What about assuming that some time soon, the pain will stop or at least reduce?
  What enjoyable experiences are you missing out on while you are focused on your pain? Seek out people, places and activities that you enjoy. Not as a form of distraction though, but because those things are worthwhile in and of themselves. Rather than try to distract yourself from the pain, I’m suggesting you acknowledge the pain even as it accompanies you in doing the things you enjoy.