Twenty-four patients with Raynaud's phenomenon were treated with griseofulvin and a placebo in a double-blind cross-over clinical trial. The results were assessed subjectively and plotted sequentially. The number of patients able to distinguish the active from the placebo treatment was statistically significant (P=0 05). There were indications that the response was dose dependent. Further studi...

In recent years, the placebo effect has been a topic of considerable interest both in the scientific and the clinical community. In this time, the placebo effect has evolved from being considered a nuisance in clinical and pharmacological research to becoming a neurobiological phenomenon worthy of scientific investigation in its own right. Recent research shows that placebo effects are genuine ...

Despite growing scientific interest in the placebo effect and increasing understanding of neurobiological mechanisms, theoretical conceptualization of the placebo effect remains poorly developed. Substantial mechanistic research on this phenomenon has proceeded with little guidance by any systematic theoretical paradigm. This review seeks to present a theoretical perspective on the formation of...

The selective 5-hydroxytryptamine2-(5-HT2)-receptor-blocking agent ketanserin was given in a dose of 10 mg intravenously to nine patients with Raynaud's phenomenon. The effect on blood flow was assessed by photopletysmography and measurments of skin temperature. Digital blood flow and skin temperature increased significantly after ketanserin injection, whereas the placebo (saline 9 g/l) had no ...

We present empirical evidence that the distribution of effort required to solve CSPs randomly generated at the 50% satisfiable point, when using a backtracking algorithm, can be approximated by two standard families of continuous probability distribution functions. Solvable problems can be modelled by the Weibull distribution, and unsolvable problems by the lognormal distribution. These distrib...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In previous phase III studies, the PCSK9 monoclonal antibody alirocumab was administered at doses of 75 or 150 mg every 2 weeks (Q2W). CHOICE I (NCT01926782) evaluated 300 mg every 4 weeks (Q4W) in patients on either maximally tolerated statin or no statin, both ± other lipid-lowering therapies. METHODS CHOICE I included patients with hypercholesterolemia at moderate-to-ve...

Oral food challenges still remain the gold standard in the diagnosis of food related symptoms and are performed to obtain a clear “yes or no” response. However, this is often difficult to achieve, and so proposals may be appropriate for criteria on when to stop oral food challenges and declare a challenge as positive or negative. In daily practice it makes sense to challenge until clear objecti...

By using deceptive experiments in which participants are informed that they received caffeine when, fact, an inert substance (i.e., placebo), several investigations have demonstrated exercise performance can be enhanced to a similar degree as known dose. This ‘placebo effect’ phenomenon may part of the mechanisms explaining caffeine’s ergogenicity exercise. However, there is no study has establ...