Placebo and Opioid Analgesia: Imaging a Shared Neuronal Network

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 295; no. 5560; pp. 1737 - 1740
• Main Authors: Petrovic, Predrag, Kalso, Eija, Petersson, Karl Magnus, Ingvar, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 01-03-2002; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Adult; Analgesia; Analgesics; Analgesics, Opioid - pharmacology; Analysis; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain stem; Brain Stem - blood supply; Brain Stem - diagnostic imaging; Brain Stem - physiology; Care and treatment; Causal covariation; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Feedback (Response); Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gyrus Cinguli - blood supply; Gyrus Cinguli - diagnostic imaging; Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Homeopathy; Humans; Male; Materia medica and therapeutics; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Narcotics; Nerve Net - physiology; Networks; Neural networks; Neuroscience; Neurotransmission and behavior; Opioid analgesics; Pain; Pain management; Pain Measurement; Piperidines - pharmacology; Placebo Effect; Placebos; Placebos - pharmacology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Receptors, Opioid - metabolism; Stripes; Therapeutics; Tomography; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Transponders; Analgesia; Cingulate cortex; Brain stem; Central nervous system; Opiates; Neural network; Placebo effect; Brain (vertebrata); Emission tomography
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1067176

It has been suggested that placebo analgesia involves both higher order cognitive networks and endogenous opioid systems. The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and the brainstem are implicated in opioid analgesia, suggesting a similar role for these structures in placebo analgesia. Using positron emission tomography, we confirmed that both opioid and placebo analgesia are associated with increased activity in the rACC. We also observed a covariation between the activity in the rACC and the brainstem during both opioid and placebo analgesia, but not during the pain-only condition. These findings indicate a related neural mechanism in placebo and opioid analgesia.