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Pain

Placebo and personality

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 14, page 2 (2013)Cite this article

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A new study suggests that personality traits can predict how an individual will respond to placebo pain relief when given a painful saline injection into the jaw muscle. People who scored highly for resilience, altruism and straightforwardness, and had low scores for anger and hostility were most likely to report a reduction in pain when given a placebo. These subjects also showed reduced levels of stress hormones and higher release of endogenous opioids during placebo administration.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Peciña, M. et al. Personality trait predictors of placebo analgesia and neurobiological correlates. Neuropsychopharmacology 16 Nov 2012 (doi:10.1038/npp.2012.227)

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  1. Rachel Jones
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Jones, R. Placebo and personality. Nat Rev Neurosci 14, 2 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3411

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