ArticleThe journal of pain2015
Conditioned placebo analgesia persists when subjects know they are receiving a placebo.
Article in The journal of pain, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03294148 (Mind-body Treatments for Chronic Back Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 49 papers, 2 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.
Mind-body Treatments for Chronic Back Pain
Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 116 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analytic evidence for distinct neural correlates of conditioned versus verbally induced placebo analgesia.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Dispositional optimism and open-label placebo responses in hair cortisol concentrations and psychological distress-A randomized controlled trial.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
- To Ask or Not to Ask: Does Inquiring About Participants' Expectations Influence the Placebo Effect? A Placebo Mechanism Study in Healthy Volunteers.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Roles of administration route, expectation, and belief in placebos in a randomized controlled trial with open-label placebos.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Open-label placebos enhance test performance and reduce anxiety in learner drivers: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- The impact of pharmaceutical form and simulated side effects in an open-label-placebo RCT for improving psychological distress in highly stressed students.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Informed Consent for Placebo-Controlled Trials: Do Ethics and Science Conflict?Ethics & human research · 2022Trial
- Patients' experiences treated with open-label placebo versus double-blind placebo: a mixed methods qualitative study.BMC psychology · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Enhancing treatment of osteoarthritis knee pain by boosting expectancy: A functional neuroimaging study.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Classical conditioning without verbal suggestions elicits placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia.PloS one · 2017Trial
- Social information creates self-fulfilling prophecies in judgments of pain, vicarious pain, and cognitive effort.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Through Massage to the Brain-Neuronal and Neuroplastic Mechanisms of Massage Based on Various Neuroimaging Techniques (EEG, fMRI, and fNIRS).Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Working with patients' treatment expectations - what we can learn from homeopathy.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- How Instructions, Learning, and Expectations Shape Pain and Neurobiological Responses.Annual review of neuroscience · 2023Review
- Neural underpinnings of open-label placebo effects in emotional distress.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Open-Label Placebo Effects on Psychological and Physical Well-Being: A Conceptual Replication Study.Clinical psychology in Europe · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
unlabelledBelief in the effectiveness of a placebo treatment is widely thought to be critical for placebo analgesia. Many types of placebo responses--even those that depend on conditioning--appear to be mediated by expectations that are strengthened as treatment cues are reinforced with positive outcomes. However, placebo effects may occur even when participants are aware they are receiving a placebo. To address the question of whether conditioned placebo analgesia can persist in the absence of expectations, we studied the effects of long (4 days) versus short (1 day) conditioning to a placebo treatment. After an initial placebo test, a "reveal" manipulation convincingly demonstrated to participants that they had never received an active drug. Placebo analgesia persisted after the reveal in the long conditioning group only. These findings suggest that reinforcing treatment cues with positive outcomes can create placebo effects that are independent of reported expectations for pain relief. PERSPECTIVE: This article demonstrates a form of placebo analgesia that relies on prior conditioning rather than current expected pain relief. This highlights the importance of prior experience on pain relief and offers insight into the variability of placebo effects across individuals.
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.