ReviewScience and engineering ethics2004
The use of the placebo effect in clinical medicine--ethical blunder or ethical imperative?
Review in Science and engineering ethics, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Frequency and circumstances of placebo use in clinical practice--a systematic review of empirical studies.BMC medicine · 2010Pooled it
- Placebo Effects in Modern Medicine: Mechanisms, Clinical Evidence, Limitations, and Future Directions.Cureus · 2026Review
- Vulvodynia and Chronic Vulvar Pain: Influencing Factors and Long-Term Success After Therapeutic Local Anesthesia (TLA).Pain and therapy · 2025Article
- Therapy With Local Anesthetics to Treat Vulvodynia. A Pilot Study.Sexual medicine · 2022Article
- Open-label placebo for insomnia (OPIN): study protocol for a cohort multiple randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Perception and practice of placebo use among physicians in Mangalore.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2020Article
- A survey on beliefs and attitudes of trainee surgeons towards placebo.BMC surgery · 2016Article
- The use of pure and impure placebo interventions in primary care - a qualitative approach.BMC family practice · 2011Article
- Placebo interventions in practice: a questionnaire survey on the attitudes of patients and physicians.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2011Article
- Use of placebo interventions among Swiss primary care providers.BMC health services research · 2009Article
- What is the place for placebo in the management of psychogenic disease?Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2007Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The current debate in medical ethics on placebos focuses mainly on their use in health research. Whereas this is certainly an important topic the discussion tends to overlook another longstanding but nevertheless highly relevant question, namely if and how the placebo effect should be employed in clinical practice. This paper describes the way the placebo effect is perceived in modern medicine and offers some historical reflections on how these perceptions have developed; discusses elements of a definition of the placebo effect; and suggests some conditions under which making use of the therapeutic potential of the placebo effect can be ethically acceptable, if not warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
14986770What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.