ArticlePain2016
Relieving pain using dose-extending placebos: a scoping review.
Article in Pain, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 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
47 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Safety of Probiotics, Prebiotics and Synbiotics for the Treatment of Functional Constipation in Children: Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of conditioning + open-label placebo for post-operative pain management in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.Pain management · 2025Trial
- The Power of a Good Word: Enhancing the Efficacy of Analgesics in Clinical Settings.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2025Trial
- Effectiveness of Conditioned Open-label Placebo With Methadone in Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- The influence of message framing on nocebo headaches: Findings from a randomized laboratory design.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Top-down control of the descending pain modulatory system drives multimodal placebo analgesia.Neuron · 2026Article
- The power to adapt: How resilience and changing expectations contribute to placebo effects.The journal of pain · 2026Article
- Dose-extending placebo effect in a rat model of buprenorphine maintenance treatment.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Article
- 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
- Translating knowledge on placebo and nocebo effects into clinical practice.Pain reports · 2024Article
- Placebo effects in osteoarthritis: implications for treatment and drug development.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- Clinical Assessment of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain-A Framework Proposal Based on a Narrative Review of the Literature.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Placebo and nocebo effects: from observation to harnessing and clinical application.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- Attitudes Toward a Pre-authorized Concealed Opioid Taper: A Qualitative Analysis of Patient and Clinician Perspectives.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Patient and Provider Acceptability of a Patient Preauthorized Concealed Opioid Reduction.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2021Article
- Can Residential Greenspace Exposure Improve Pain Experience? A Comparison between Physical Visit and Image Viewing.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- The Placebo and Nocebo Responses in Clinical Trials in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2021Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on byReply.2017
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Placebos are often used by clinicians, usually deceptively and with little rationale or evidence of benefit, making their use ethically problematic. In contrast with their typical current use, a provocative line of research suggests that placebos can be intentionally exploited to extend analgesic therapeutic effects. Is it possible to extend the effects of drug treatments by interspersing placebos? We reviewed a database of placebo studies, searching for studies that indicate that placebos given after repeated administration of active treatments acquire medication-like effects. We found a total of 22 studies in both animals and humans hinting of evidence that placebos may work as a sort of dose extender of active painkillers. Wherever effective in relieving clinical pain, such placebo use would offer several advantages. First, extending the effects of a painkiller through the use of placebos may reduce total drug intake and side effects. Second, dose-extending placebos may decrease patient dependence. Third, using placebos along with active medication, for part of the course of treatment, should limit dose escalation and lower costs. Provided that nondisclosure is preauthorized in the informed consent process and that robust evidence indicates therapeutic benefit comparable to that of standard full-dose therapeutic regimens, introducing dose-extending placebos into the clinical arsenal should be considered. This novel prospect of placebo use has the potential to change our general thinking about painkiller treatments, the typical regimens of painkiller applications, and the ways in which treatments are evaluated.
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.