Can some people be more susceptible to placebos?

Nobody ever suggested a hand cream could cure a disease did they?

Yes Jess. Agree Anya's was probably a conditioned response

Voltarol works slightly differently to some creams in that is sets off a series of small shocks to the skin which overrides the pain [at least, that's what I was once told]. And any warmth overrides pain because of the brain reacting to heat before pain so that we protect ourselves from burning before we actually burn.

I think you are technically correct jaineainsworth - but you can also get a conditioned response. e.g. the original "discovery" of placebo (first academic paper I think) was based on WW1 field hospitals. The soldiers were used to having morphine injections for pain. The staff ran out of morphine and gave the soldiers inert injections and they still got the same benefit. The soldiers had a conditioned response to injections that they believed to be morphine. So not technically a placebo effect according to your definition. This could happen with a cream.
Placebo is similar to hypnotic suggestion. Some people more susceptible to suggestion than others.
Thing to remember is that: placebo only works on some of the people some of the time and then only on symptoms. It never ever cures a disease and don't ever believe anyone who says it does.

Could it be the rubbing action that works and the gel/cream just provides lubricant.

I'll give that a try Shysal but in the long-term I need to get some flexibility back in my arms and shoulders do I can reach all parts. I've started some yoga exercises for stiff shoulders.

I think the actual rubbing/massage has some effect, irrespective of what is actually rubbed in!

Anya, try a washing-up sponge with a handle for applying cream to hard-to-reach places. Not the scouring type obviously! Mine ends in a ring through which I squash a piece of bath sponge, since the original disintegrated. It was always in my holiday bag for suntan lotion.

mind mine

Interesting Jane - and they certainly smell better than that gel. And mind, at least, was not tested on animals.

Anya I was given a little tub of National Trust Gardeners' muscle and Joint Rub, containing Eucalyptus and Rosemary.
I was extremely sceptical that this would do anything except smell quite nice, put when I put some on, it did indeed seem to have at least as analgesic an effect as that well-known pharmaceutical gel that I sometimes use

Jane that makes sense. But I find it hard to understand how something like this simple hand cream could work so quickly and effectively. I'm delighted of course that it does and, from the posts above, it seems that certain essential oils must be at work.

I suppose it would take other people's experience of this particular product to see if it has the same beneficial effect on others with arthritic pain in their hands. If anyone does want to try this I'm happy to post a link.

Anya the placebo effect is when you think something has worked, believing that you are receiving something that has a therapeutic effect.
For example, you are given something which you believe is a painkiller, but it really it contains only sugar, but it still relieved your pain.
If you start off believing that something won't work, like your hand cream, and it does, that's not placebo. It would only have been placebo if you had believed before you rubbed it into your hands that it would work.
IYSWIM

Jen that also sounds a better option than the bat for getting pain relief to the bit I can't reach. Not a tennis ball as that would soak up the cream but I have a solid rubber ball I bought for the dog (who rejected it)

As jingl said 'good idea'

PS it's over 8 hours since I posted about this cream and the pain hasn't come back.

why didn't I think of that?

That is such a good idea DJen! So glad I didn't bin them. Will try that. Thank you.

Jingl, how about instead of lying on the floor, using it against the wall?
My husband was told to do that by a chiropractor. If you lie on the floor, you are putting all your weight over the ball. If you stand against the wall, you can control how hard the pressure is.

They work for me

I believe in placebos.

A bit off topic, so apologies in advance.

I've got a bit of a hump back (don't laugh at that either) and I found on the net a video of how to "help" it. You get two tennis balls, tape them together side by side, and lie flat on your back with "the peanut" as they called it, under your hump. And lie there. And relax. And just lie there some more (if you can bear it)

I did it. I even walked to Decathlon to buy the tennis balls.

My God! The pain next morning was excruciating!!! Who puts this kind of stuff on the net for gullible old girls innocent elderly ladies to hurt themselves with?!

It was the banging your back with the baseball bat that made me think of that Anya. Perhaps I should try that.

S2B I didn't think for a moment you were laughing at me. I was laughing at myself for using Gardener's Hand Cream because it sounded such an odd thing to use.

Mishap I didn't go into details before but I couldn't actually reach the part of my back that was aching. It was in just that one spot where neither hand could reach. So I got the baseball bat I keep by my bed in case of burglars I fancy a game during the night, dotted some of the cream on the end and sort of thumped myself gently between my shoulder blades. it was probably more like the beating with twigs I hear was widely popular in Sweden in the 60s.

Yes jen anything that works I will keep using it.

Rosemary is also a good anti-inflammatory, so you've got two in one in that cream. I's carry on using it if it works that well.

Placebo effect is very real indeed and I suspect that we are all susceptible to it - which is a good thing - whatever makes you feel better. It may be the act of massaging this cream in also contributes to the positive effect.

I wasnt laughing at you Anya. Sorry if you thought that I was.
I was being serious.

Sounds as though it could be the cream! I use Migrastick (other headache remedies are available!) when my head's bad and I can definitely feel the oil working, it's a strange feeling of burning , but chilling - yes, I know that's contradictory!