On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Although placebos may only be sham medicines, the benefits patients believe they receive appear to be more than illusions. Neuroscientists at the Universities of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Maryland injected saltwater into the jaw muscles of healthy young male volunteers to cause pain. The researchers then told them that intravenous saline drips might be painkillers and asked them to rate the intensity of their discomfort on a scale of 0 to 100 every 15 seconds. Brain scans revealed that neural areas linked with responses to pain, stress, rewards and emotion released endorphins, natural analgesics that behave like opiates. The endorphin response matched up in time with reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness the volunteers reported. The scientists, whose findings appear in the August 24 Journal of Neuroscience, plan on researching this effect in women and in patients with chronic pain.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
