ArticlePLoS medicine2005
Deception in research on the placebo effect.
Article in PLoS medicine, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
73 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Therapeutic options for neurocardiogenic syncope: a meta-analysis of randomised trials with and without blinding.Open heart · 2024Pooled it
- Placebo Economics: A Systematic Review About the Economic Potential of Utilizing the Placebo Effect.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Evidence for Medical Marijuana in Psychiatric Indications.The Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2016Pooled it
- Can Nocebo Effects Be Reduced via Open- and Closed-Label Counterconditioning?European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Motor placebo effect in obesity: how ergogenic aids can decrease fatigue and improve motor performance.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2025Trial
- It Is Time to Feel Better: How Temporal Information of Placebo Analgesia Affects Our Brain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Trial
- Expectancy-Mood Neural Dynamics Predict Mechanisms of Short- and Long-Term Antidepressant Placebo Effects.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Trial
- Open-label placebo treatment does not enhance cognitive abilities in healthy volunteers.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- μ Opioid Antagonist Naltrexone Partially Abolishes the Antidepressant Placebo Effect and Reduces Orbitofrontal Cortex Encoding of Reinforcement.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2021Trial
- Medicine-related beliefs predict attribution of symptoms to a sham medicine: A prospective study.British journal of health psychology · 2018Trial
- Does the placebo effect modulate drug bioavailability? Randomized cross-over studies of three drugs.Journal of negative results in biomedicine · 2017Trial
- Vasopressin Boosts Placebo Analgesic Effects in Women: A Randomized Trial.Biological psychiatry · 2016Trial
- Effects of ginger and expectations on symptoms of nausea in a balanced placebo design.PloS one · 2012Trial
- Interaction between drug and placebo effects: a cross-over balanced placebo design trial.Trials · 2010Trial
- Exploring the potential synergistic pharmacological and psychological effects of caffeine on exercise performance: a placebo-balanced study.Biology of sport · 2026Article
- A novel provocation protocol to identify nocebo effects in clinical practice-a proof-of-concept n-of-1 study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Isolating Brain Mechanisms of Expectancy Effects on Pain: Cue-Based Stimulus Expectancies versus Placebo-Based Treatment Expectancies.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Sham controls in device trials for chronic pain - tricky in practice-a review article.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2023Review
- Nocebo effects in visceral pain: concept and design of the experimental randomized-controlled pain study 'NoVis'.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Open-Label Placebo Effects on Psychological and Physical Well-Being: A Conceptual Replication Study.Clinical psychology in Europe · 2022Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.