Introduction to placebo effects in medicine: mechanisms and clinical implications
- 27 June 2011
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
- Vol. 366 (1572), 1783-1789
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0414
Abstract
The field of placebo research has made considerable progress in the last years and it has become a major focus of interest. We know now that the placebo effect is a real neurobiological phenomenon and that the brain's ‘inner pharmacy’ is a critical determinant for the occurrence of psychobiological and behavioural changes relevant to healing processes and well-being. However, harnessing the advantages of placebo effects in healthcare is still a challenge. The first part of the theme issue summarizes and discusses the various kinds of placebo mechanisms across medical fields, thereby not only focusing on two main explanatory models—expectation and conditioning theory—but also taking into account empathy and social learning, emotion and motivation, spirituality and the healing ritual. The second part of the issue focuses on questions related to transferring knowledge from placebo research into clinical practice and discusses implications for the design and interpretation of clinical trials, for the therapeutic settings in daily patient care, and for future translational placebo research.Keywords
This publication has 61 references indexed in Scilit:
- Spirituality: an overlooked predictor of placebo effects?Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2011
- Placebo studies and ritual theory: a comparative analysis of Navajo, acupuncture and biomedical healingPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2011
- The placebo response in clinical trials: more questions than answersPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2011
- Placebo interventions, placebo effects and clinical practicePhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2011
- Placebo mechanisms across different conditions: from the clinical setting to physical performancePhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2011
- Dispositional Optimism Predicts Placebo AnalgesiaThe Journal of Pain, 2010
- German Acupuncture Trials (Gerac) For Chronic Low Back PainRandomized, Multicenter, Blinded, Parallel-Group Trial With 3 GroupsArchives of Internal Medicine, 2007
- Overt versus covert treatment for pain, anxiety, and Parkinson's diseaseThe Lancet Neurology, 2004
- Placebo-responsive Parkinson patients show decreased activity in single neurons of subthalamic nucleusNature Neuroscience, 2004
- THE MECHANISM OF PLACEBO ANALGESIAThe Lancet, 1978