There are a wide variety of different factors that can affect the length of times it takes to recover from a serious accident or injury at work. Take, for example, the instance of an injury sustained by a heavy box falling on an employee, causing serious physical harm. When it comes to solicitors getting involved, there are all sorts of factors that need to be born in mind to ensure that the victim receives the correct amount of compensation from their employer for their injury.
Compensation to reflect recovery times
In the aforementioned instance, the victim had to take a considerable amount of time off work in order to recover from their injuries. The problem for many people who have this kind of accident while in the workplace is that it can take a fair amount of time for them to feel they are able to return to work with the same vigour that they had before the accident occurred.
It is often the case that people who have sustained injuries while at work can take longer to recover than people who have had accidents elsewhere, at home for example. This can be for a variety of different reasons, but one of the main ones is that the fear of sustaining another injury can affect their ability to return to work
What can be done to aid someone who is affected in this way by an accident at work? Interesting new research reveals that the placebo effect could have more of an impact on recovery times than you might think.
The placebo effect and how it can help
The effects of placebos have been widely documented over recent years. When test patients are offered “sugar pills” with no active ingredients but are told that this medication will help, many of the subjects report improvements in their condition. What is even more interesting is that scientists are discovering that the placebo effect can be achieved by using a wide variety of subconscious triggers too.
When patients are surrounded by an environment that subconsciously suggests that their condition will improve, there is an increased instance of improvement in their physical condition. These cues can be incredibly subtle, to the point that they do not register at all in the patient’s conscious mind.
Similarly, if the subconscious cues suggest that they will not improve, the mind can be tricked into believing that this is also true. It is known as the ‘nocebo effect’ and can have a significant impact on recovery times after an accident.
The placebo effect is a vital tool in pain management for people who have sustained injuries due to an accident. It is not just a case of taking a “sugar pill”. Instead the placebo effect is brought about by all manner of psychological stimuli from the surrounding environment.
The environment plays a vital role on the road to recovery. Being surrounded by positive stimuli can have a massive impact in reducing levels of pain and helping to improve the condition of someone who has suffered a serious accident while at work.