Research into interventional techniques in managing chronic spinal pain continues to be challenging, mystifying, confusing, and biased. Insight, or lack thereof, into placebo and nocebo phenomena contributes mightily to these difficulties. Unfortunately, placebo-nocebo responses are the subject of numerous controversies and challenges from not only a research perspective, but also clinical pers...

A wealth of research shows that the expectancy to improve, either by verbal suggestion or by learning experiences, results in less pain and suffering [8]. There are also intriguing studies showing the relevance and usefulness of placebo in clinical settings [4]. Far less research is available on the reverse, the nocebo effect. Overall, results of these studies are concordant with the placebo re...

Previous studies suggest that nocebo effects, sometimes termed "negative placebo effects," can contribute appreciably to a variety of medical symptoms and adverse events in clinical trials and medical care. In this study, using a within-subject design, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and an expectation/conditioning manipulation model to investigate the neural substrates...

OBJECTIVE Choice may be an important influence on the effectiveness and side effects of medical treatments. PURPOSE We investigated the impact of having a choice of medication compared to no choice on both nocebo and placebo responding. METHODS Sixty-one participants were randomly assigned to either choose between or be assigned to one of the two equivalent beta-blocker medications (actuall...

Placebo and nocebo effects are essential components of medical practice and efficacy research, and can be regarded as a special case of context learning. A fundamental function of the central nervous system is to configure the way in which previous learned context becomes linked to corresponding responses. These responses could be either automatic procedures with little flexibility or highly ad...

34 This investigation aimed to explore the effects of inert sugar free drinks described as 35 either ‘performance enhancing’ (placebo) or ‘fatigue inducing’ (nocebo) on peak 36 minute power (PMP;W) during incremental arm crank ergometry (ACE). Twelve 37 healthy, non specifically trained individuals volunteered to take part. A single blind 38 randomized controlled trial with repeated measures wa...

34 This investigation aimed to explore the effects of inert sugar free drinks described as 35 either ‘performance enhancing’ (placebo) or ‘fatigue inducing’ (nocebo) on peak 36 minute power (PMP;W) during incremental arm crank ergometry (ACE). Twelve 37 healthy, non specifically trained individuals volunteered to take part. A single blind 38 randomized controlled trial with repeated measures wa...

Placebo and nocebo effects are embodied psycho-neurobiological responses capable of modulating pain and producing changes at different neurobiological, body at perceptual and cognitive levels. These modifications are triggered by different contextual factors (CFs) presented in the therapeutic encounter between patient and healthcare providers, such as healing rituals and signs. The CFs directly...

OBJECTIVE The objectives of the study were to determine the impact of nocebo effects on adverse events (AEs) in drug trials in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). METHODS MEDLINE, CENTRAL, SCOPUS, and the databases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America were searched until December 31, 20...

This comprehensive review provides an overview about placebo and nocebo phenomena in antidepressant trials. Improvements in the placebo groups may partly be explained through methodological issues such as natural course of depression and regression to the mean, but also fundamentally reflect investigators' and participants' expectations. A meta-analysis by our group of 96 randomized placebo-con...