SynthesisHandbook of experimental pharmacology2014
A meta-analysis of brain mechanisms of placebo analgesia: consistent findings and unanswered questions.
Synthesis in Handbook of experimental pharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 6 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
78 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analytic evidence for distinct neural correlates of conditioned versus verbally induced placebo analgesia.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Neural Correlates of Explicit Outcome Expectation Effects: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis.Human brain mapping · 2026Pooled it
- Placebo and nocebo effects and mechanisms associated with pharmacological interventions: an umbrella review.BMJ open · 2023Pooled it
- Functional Neuroimaging Correlates of Placebo Response in Patients With Depressive or Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of neural systems underlying placebo analgesia from individual participant fMRI data.Nature communications · 2021Pooled it
- Placebo Effects on the Neurologic Pain Signature: A Meta-analysis of Individual Participant Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data.JAMA neurology · 2018Pooled it
- Domain-General Neural Effects of Associative Learning and Expectations on Pain and Hedonic Taste Perception.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Trial
- Task-dependent functional connectivity of pain is associated with the magnitude of placebo analgesia in pain-free individuals.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Manipulating placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia by changing brain excitability.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Trial
- Placebo-like analgesia via response imagery.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2017Trial
- Brain Connectivity Predicts Placebo Response across Chronic Pain Clinical Trials.PLoS biology · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Brain network representations of placebo analgesia.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Placebo effect on brainstem activity associated with capsaicin-evoked urge to cough in healthy humans.The European respiratory journal · 2026Article
- Review
- 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
- Article
- Placebo treatment entails resource-dependent downregulation of negative inputs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Justice for Placebo: Placebo Effect in Clinical Trials and Everyday Practice.Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- "The Dark Side of Musculoskeletal Care": Why Do Ineffective Techniques Seem to Work? A Comprehensive Review of Complementary and Alternative Therapies.Biomedicines · 2025Review
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Placebo treatments reliably reduce pain in the clinic and in the lab. Because pain is a subjective experience, it has been difficult to determine whether placebo analgesia is clinically relevant. Neuroimaging studies of placebo analgesia provide objective evidence of placebo-induced changes in brain processing and allow researchers to isolate the mechanisms underlying placebo-based pain reduction. We conducted formal meta-analyses of 25 neuroimaging studies of placebo analgesia and expectancy-based pain modulation. Results revealed that placebo effects and expectations for reduced pain elicit reliable reductions in activation during noxious stimulation in regions often associated with pain processing, including the dorsal anterior cingulate, thalamus, and insula. In addition, we observed consistent reductions during painful stimulation in the amygdala and striatum, regions implicated widely in studies of affect and valuation. This suggests that placebo effects are strongest on brain regions traditionally associated with not only pain, but also emotion and value more generally. Other brain regions showed reliable increases in activation with expectations for reduced pain. These included the prefrontal cortex (including dorsolateral, ventromedial, and orbitofrontal cortices), the midbrain surrounding the periaqueductal gray, and the rostral anterior cingulate. We discuss implications of these findings as well as how future studies can expand our understanding of the precise functional contributions of the brain systems identified here.
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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.