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...

The present evidence illustrates that the placebo effect depends on a variety of neurochemical and neurophysiological mechanisms, which are measurable and modifiable. However, the placebo response is inexorably tied to the treatment context. All medical treatments take place in a particular context; this context includes the therapist's attitudes, psychosocial factors affecting the therapeutic ...

CONTEXT Placebo and nocebo effects, the therapeutic and adverse effects, respectively, of inert substances or sham procedures, represent serious confounds in the evaluation of therapeutic interventions. They are also an example of cognitive processes, particularly expectations, capable of influencing physiology. OBJECTIVE To examine the contribution of 2 different neurotransmitters, the endog...

OBJECTIVE To compare the incidence of adverse events between active and placebo arms of randomized clinical trials in depressive children and adolescents (C&A) with antidepressant treatments, in order to look for similarities in both groups that allow to establish a possible nocebo effect. METHODS Systematic search strategy (January 1974-March 2013) in electronic databases, conference abstrac...

The nocebo effect in motor performance consists in a reduction of force and increase of fatigue following the application of an inert treatment that the recipient believes to be effective. This effect is variable across individuals and it is usually stronger if conditioning -exposure to the active effect of the treatment- precedes a test session, in which the treatment is inert. In the current ...

As recently demonstrated, a placebo procedure in motor performance increases force production and changes the excitability of the corticospinal system, by enhancing the amplitude of the motor evoked potentials (MEP) and reducing the duration of the cortical silent period (CSP). However, it is not clear whether these neurophysiological changes are related to the behavioural outcome (increased fo...

In this article we explore the ethics of manipulating verbal information for the sake of influencing health outcomes through placebo and nocebo responses. Recent scientific research on placebo and nocebo effects has drawn attention to the ways in which communication by health professionals may modulate the symptoms of patients across an array of highly prevalent conditions such as pain, depress...

PURPOSE Nocebo is very prevalent among neurological diseases resulting in low adherence and treatment outcome. We sought to examine the AEs following placebo administration in Randomized Controlled Studies (RCTs) for Epilepsy. METHOD After a systematic Medline search for RCTs for Epilepsy pharmacological treatments, we assessed the number of discontinuations because of placebo intolerance. ...