ReviewThe pharmacogenomics journal2016
Mechanisms of the placebo effect in pain and psychiatric disorders.
Review in The pharmacogenomics journal, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 5 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Analyzing the Placebo Response and Identifying Influential Factors in Oral Medication Trials for Acute-Phase Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Placebo Effect and its Correlates in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2023Pooled it
- Control interventions in randomised trials among people with mental health disorders.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Differential power of placebo across major psychiatric disorders: a preliminary meta-analysis and machine learning study.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- New insights into the pharmacogenomics of antidepressant response from the GENDEP and STAR*D studies: rare variant analysis and high-density imputation.The pharmacogenomics journal · 2018Pooled it
- Does a pretreatment with a dentine hypersensitivity mouth-rinse compensate the pain caused by professional mechanical plaque removal? A single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial.Clinical oral investigations · 2021Trial
- A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial to Explore Cognitive and Emotional Effects of Probiotics in Fibromyalgia.Scientific reports · 2018Trial
- Accurate pain reporting training diminishes the placebo response: Results from a randomised, double-blind, crossover trial.PloS one · 2018Trial
- A Novel Strategy to Identify Placebo Responders: Prediction Index of Clinical and Biological Markers in the EMBARC Trial.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2018Trial
- International Consensus Guidelines on the Safe and Evidence-Based Practice of Mesotherapy: A Multidisciplinary Statement.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The power of insulin education: enhancing pain and treatment perception in adult type 2 diabetes patients.Journal of diabetes and metabolic disorders · 2025Article
- Do patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and healthy people differ in their opinions on placebo effects in routine medical care?Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain · 2025Article
- Pharmacogenomics: current status and future perspectives.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2023Review
- The Importance of Patient Expectations: A Mixed-Methods Study of U.S. Psychiatrists.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- "Placebo by Proxy" and "Nocebo by Proxy" in Children: A Review of Parents' Role in Treatment Outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- What can clinicians do to improve outcomes across psychiatric treatments: a conceptual review of non-specific components.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2019Review
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and placebo analgesia: is the effect the same for young and older individuals?Clinical interventions in aging · 2018Article
- 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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Placebo effect research over the past 15 years has improved our understanding of how placebo treatments reduce patient symptoms. The expectation of symptom improvement is the primary factor underlying the placebo effect. Such expectations are shaped by past experiences, contextual cues and biological traits, which ultimately modulate one's degree of response to a placebo. The body of evidence that describes the physiology of the placebo effect has been derived from mechanistic studies primarily restricted to the setting of pain. Imaging findings support the role of endogenous opioid and dopaminergic networks in placebo analgesia in both healthy patients as well as patients with painful medical conditions. In patients with psychiatric illnesses such as anxiety disorders or depression, a vast overlap in neurological changes is observed in drug responders and placebo responders supporting the role of serotonergic networks in placebo response. Molecular techniques have been relatively underutilized in understanding the placebo effect until recently. We present an overview of the placebo responder phenotypes and genetic markers that have been associated with the placebo effect in pain, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and depression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
27001122What 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.