Have you ever experienced pain, gone to the doctor’s office and received pain medications? Well, we all know that we are experiencing an opioid crisis today and mainly due to the over-use of pain medications. True story, a family member had some minor, outpatient procedure performed and was discharged with a prescription for pain medications. Yep, an opioid! Fortunately, it never needed to be used; however, other alternatives were never even considered.

A recent study published on the NIH Institutes of Health found that people experienced less pain when the treatment provider “expected” the pain reliever to work. These results suggest that a healthcare provider’s beliefs and facial expressions when delivering a treatment may impact a patient’s outcome.