ArticleHealth psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association2017
Harnessing the placebo effect: Exploring the influence of physician characteristics on placebo response.
Article in Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03949816 (The Influence of Doctor-patient Communication on Treatment Expectation, Placebo and Nocebo Response), which is not on this map. Cited by 83 papers, 3 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.
The Influence of Doctor-patient Communication on Treatment Expectation, Placebo and Nocebo Response
Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 193 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression: a systematic review.Psychopharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Mitigating the Nocebo Effect in Biosimilar Use and Switching: A Systematic Review.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2024Pooled it
- A Qualitative Systematic Review of Effects of Provider Characteristics and Nonverbal Behavior on Pain, and Placebo and Nocebo Effects.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Beyond expectations: nocebo suggestion affects cognitive performance in older adults.Psychological research · 2026Trial
- An eight-week placebo-controlled RCT on the efficacy of a probiotic nutritional intervention for subclinical gastrointestinal symptoms in students.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Inpatient's, therapist's and staff's expectations regarding treatment and their effects on placebo response in the psychiatric ward - results from an add-on oxytocin RCT.Psychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- White patients' physical responses to healthcare treatments are influenced by provider race and gender.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Providing open-label placebos remotely-A randomized controlled trial in allergic rhinitis.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Effects and Components of Placebos with a Psychological Treatment Rationale - Three Randomized-Controlled Studies.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Psychologic Factors Do Not Affect Placebo Responses After Upper Extremity Injections: A Randomized Trial.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2018Trial
- Antipruritic Placebo Effects by Conditioning H1-antihistamine.Psychosomatic medicineTrial
- Changing Patient Mindsets about Non-Life-Threatening Symptoms During Oral Immunotherapy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practiceTrial
- Influence of Physician Behaviors on How Patients Interpret Normal Test Results.Annals of family medicine · 2026Article
- Supporting Visual Working Memory in Healthy Aging: A Review of Current Interventions and Perspectives on Future Approaches.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Prediction, pain, and the power of context: toward a contemporary identity for the chiropractic profession.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2026Review
- 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
- Nocebo effects are stronger and more persistent than placebo effects in healthy individuals.eLife · 2025Article
- The Role of Oxytocin and Sex in Analgesic Placebo-Response: Exploratory Analysis from a Sham Randomized Clinical Trial in Chronic Back-Pain Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Placebo, Nocebo, and Machine Learning: How Generative AI Could Shape Patient Perception in Mental Health Care.JMIR mental health · 2025Article
23 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
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveResearch on placebo/nocebo effects suggests that expectations can influence treatment outcomes, but placebo/nocebo effects are not always evident. This research demonstrates that a provider's social behavior moderates the effect of expectations on physiological outcomes.
methodsAfter inducing an allergic reaction in participants through a histamine skin prick test, a health care provider administered a cream with no active ingredients and set either positive expectations (cream will reduce reaction) or negative expectations (cream will increase reaction). The provider demonstrated either high or low warmth, or either high or low competence.
resultsThe impact of expectations on allergic response was enhanced when the provider acted both warmer and more competent and negated when the provider acted colder and less competent.
conclusionThis study suggests that placebo effects should be construed not as a nuisance variable with mysterious impact but instead as a psychological phenomenon that can be understood and harnessed to improve treatment outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
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.