Children

Mother’s kiss: powerful painkiller. Here because

It has been the experience of all of us: as children, the best cure after a tumble was often a kiss from the mother. And that didn’t mean the pain wasn’t real…

The mothers of even very young children who undergo surgery know this well: the possibility of holding them in their arms and caressing them seems to ease the pain.

Recent studies on the placebo effect help us to better understand this phenomenon, so common that it seems obvious.
By placebo effect we mean that phenomenon in which the expectation of improvement of the patient and of the doctor when taking a substance believed to be a drug, creates the improvement itself.
While the idea that deception is unnecessary for the placebo effect is not new, Kaptchuk and colleagues (2011) provide the first empirical demonstration of it.

A group of 80 patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, a syndrome that causes severe pain among other symptoms, were divided into two subgroups.
Both groups knew they were participating in a placebo effect study . They also knew that one group would constitute the ‘control’, i.e. the group that would not receive any treatment. The other group would have been given a sugar pill, without any therapeutic properties (placebo group without deception). Surprisingly, the group who took the sugar pill, even though they knew it was just sugar, reported improvement in symptoms and quality of life.

For those who, like me, have been dealing with hypnosis for years, it is not surprising to read that deception was not needed to have the effect, but rather the creation of a therapeutic context, the establishment of a good relationship between those who administer the pill of sugar and who takes it and the dissemination of information on the scientific efficacy of the various forms of placebo . These are elements consciously exploited by those who work with Ericksonian hypnosis and which could be effectively used in medical communication in order to support the effectiveness of medical treatments.

Mother’s kisses and cuddles take advantage of the special nurturing relationship that exists between mother and child. From the very first hours of life, the child develops an expectation of well-being in contact with the mother (from a hypnotic point of view it is an anchorage). This expectation helps to trigger a powerful pain-relieving placebo effect and can be enhanced in anticipation of surgery or medical procedures in children, working precisely on promoting this expectation of well-being.

Dr Kathryn Barlow

Kathryn Barlow is an OB/GYN doctor, which is the medical specialty that deals with the care of women's reproductive health, including pregnancy and childbirth.

Obstetricians provide care to women during pregnancy, labor, and delivery, while gynecologists focus on the health of the female reproductive system, including the ovaries, uterus, vagina, and breasts. OB/GYN doctors are trained to provide medical and surgical care for a wide range of conditions related to women's reproductive health.

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