The placebo effect has often been considered a nuisance in basic and particularly clinical research. This view has gradually changed in recent years due to deeper insight into the neuro-bio-behavioral mechanisms steering both the placebo and nocebo responses, the evil twin of placebo. For the neuroscientist, placebo and nocebo responses have evolved as indispensable tools to understand brain me...

event rates in the studies invalidate the results of our study (1). First, we disagree that a prominent apparent nocebo effect biases toward underdetection of side effects in placebo-controlled trials. The nocebo phenomenon refers to symptoms, physiologic changes, or both that follow administration of a placebo that the patients believe to be an active drug (2). Since patients enrolled in place...

Placebo and nocebo effects are known to play a key role in treatment effects in a wide variety of conditions. These effects have frequently been investigated with regard to pain and also in other physical sensations, but have hardly been investigated with regard to itch. In addition, neither in pain nor in any other physical sensation, the single and combined contribution of the expectancy mech...

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...

A large number of unwanted adverse events and symptoms reported by patients in clinical trials are not caused by the drug provided, since most of adverse events also occur in corresponding placebo groups. These nocebo effects also play a major role in drug discontinuation in clinical practice, negatively affecting treatment efficacy as well as patient adherence and compliance. Experimental and ...

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...

In this chapter, I reconceptualize elements of the “placebo effect” as the meaning response. The meaning response is defined as the physiological or psychological effects of meaning in the treatment of illness. Much of what is called the placebo effect – meaning responses elicited with inert medications – is a special case of the meaning response, as is the “nocebo effect”. Several implications...

Knowledge of placebo and nocebo effects is essential to identify their influence on the results in clinical practice and clinical trials, and thereby properly interpret their results. It is known that the gold standard of clinical trials research is the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical study. The objective of this review is to distinguish specific from non-specific effects,...

Laboratory research recently has greatly enhanced the understanding of placebo and nocebo effects by identifying specific neuromodulators and brain areas associated with them. However, little progress has been made in translating this knowledge into improved patient care. Here, we discuss the limitations in our knowledge about placebo (and nocebo) effects and the need for translational research...

Conditioning procedures are used in many placebo studies because evidence suggests that conditioning-related placebo responses are usually more robust than those induced by verbal suggestions alone. However, it has not been shown whether there is a causal relation between the number of conditioning trials and the resistance to extinction of placebo and nocebo responses. Here we test the effects...