Trial reportThe Veterinary record2017
Caregiver placebo effect in analgesic clinical trials for cats with naturally occurring degenerative joint disease-associated pain.
Trial report in The Veterinary record, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- 2025 iCatCare consensus guidelines on the diagnosis and management of lower urinary tract diseases in cats.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2025Guideline
- Refinement of the Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index (FMPI) and development of the short-form FMPI.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2022Pooled it
- Pilot study demonstrating safety and efficacy of intravenous allogeneic uterine-derived mesenchymal stromal cell therapy in cats with naturally occurring osteoarthritis.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Trial
- Client-specific outcome measure for chronic osteoarthritis pain assessment in horses.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Quantifying placebo and trial participation effects on cognitive outcome measures in aging dogs.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Field safety and efficacy study with a cannabidiol/cannabidiol acid-rich hemp paste in cats with osteoarthritic pain.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Osteoarthritis in cats: what we know, and mostly, what we don't know. . . yet.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2025Review
- Initial validation of the LSPain scale: a behaviour-based clinical tool for canine lumbosacral pain.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- Efficacy and Safety of a Diet Enriched with EPA and DHA, Turmeric Extract and Hydrolysed Collagen in Management of Naturally Occurring Osteoarthritis in Cats: A Prospective, Randomised, Blinded, Placebo- and Time-Controlled Study.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Re-evaluating the placebo response in recent canine dietary epilepsy trials.BMC veterinary research · 2024Article
- 2024 ISFM and AAFP consensus guidelines on the long-term use of NSAIDs in cats.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2024Article
- Concurrent Validation of MI-CAT(V), a Clinical Metrology Instrument for Veterinarians Assessing Osteoarthritis Pain in Cats, through Testing for Firocoxib Analgesic Efficacy in a Prospective, Randomized, Controlled, and Blinded Study.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Impact of a Novel Probiotic and Nutraceutical Supplement on Pruritic Dermatitis and the Gut Microbiota in Privately Owned Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Paw pressure and gait in middle-aged client-owned cats with and without naturally-occurring musculoskeletal disease.PloS one · 2024Article
- Therapy and Prevention of Noise Fears in Dogs-A Review of the Current Evidence for Practitioners.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- A six-month prospective, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover, dietary trial design to investigate the potential of psychobiotics on seizure semiology and comorbidities in canine epilepsy: study protocol.BMC veterinary research · 2023Article
- Pregabalin Alleviates Anxiety and Fear in Cats during Transportation and Veterinary Visits-A Clinical Field Study.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Development of Two Innovative Performance-Based Objective Measures in Feline Osteoarthritis: Their Reliability and Responsiveness to Firocoxib Analgesic Treatment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Evaluation of a nutritional supplement for the alleviation of pain associated with feline degenerative joint disease: a prospective, randomized, stratified, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2022Article
- The efficacy of a nutritional supplement containing green-lipped mussel, curcumin and blackcurrant leaf extract in dogs and cats with osteoarthritis.Veterinary medicine and science · 2022Article
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 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
A literature review identified six placebo-controlled studies of analgesics in client-owned cats with degenerative joint disease-associated pain. Five studies with 96 cats had available data. Caregiver responses on a clinical metrology instrument, Client-Specific Outcome Measure (CSOM), were compared to measured activity. Cats were categorised as 'successes' or 'failures' based on change in CSOM score and activity counts from baseline. Effect sizes based on CSOM score were calculated; factors that were associated with success/failure were analysed using logistic regression. Effect sizes ranged from 0.97 to 1.93. The caregiver placebo effect was high, with 54-74 per cent of placebo-treated cats classified as CSOM successes compared with 10-63 per cent of cats classified as successes based on objectively measured activity. 36 per cent of CSOM successes were also activity successes, while 19 per cent of CSOM failures were activity successes. No significant effects of cat age, weight, baseline activity, radiographic score, orthopaedic pain score or study type on CSOM success in the placebo groups were found. The caregiver placebo effect across these clinical trials was remarkably high, making demonstration of efficacy for an analgesic above a placebo difficult. Further work is needed to determine whether a potential placebo-by-proxy effect could benefit cats in clinical settings.
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.