Background Placebo-controlled oral drug provocation tests (DPTs) are an important step in drug hypersensitivity diagnosis. Administration of placebo (an inert sostance not detectable from drug) is recommended to avoid psychological influences on the interpretation of DPT results, however actually little is known about how to deal a reaction to placebo and how to go further with the diagnostic p...

The paper updates the word ”psychogenic”; suggests a pathophysiologic reading of the psychogenic contribute to CPP, via the stress-induced corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) signaling pathways, and differentiates predisposing, precipitating and maintaining factors; summarizes the pertinent evidence; focuses on the differential diagnosis between prominent “psychogenic” vs somatic etiology of C...

INTRODUCTION Patients require an accurate knowledge about placebos and their possible effects to ensure consent for placebo-controlled clinical trials is adequately informed. However, few previous studies have explored patients' baseline (ie, pretrial recruitment) levels of understanding and knowledge about placebos. The present online survey aimed to assess knowledge about placebos among patie...

There is limited information available on the evaluation of placebo or nocebo effects itch. The present study developed a search strategy using PubMed to evaluate literature related and/or identified 65 articles. After independent review each article, 10 studies were selected for inclusion. These varied, in terms methods and outcome measures. Overall, verbal suggestion, conditioning, topical th...

BACKGROUND Experimental studies suggest that nocebo responses might occur after exposure to equipment emitting electromagnetic fields such as high voltage power lines (HVPLs) or mobile phone base stations. OBJECTIVES The present study investigates to what extent health responses to a new HVPL can be explained by beliefs of residents regarding the health effects of HVPLs. METHODS We used a q...