Trial reportPloS one2017
Minimizing nocebo effects by conditioning with verbal suggestion: A randomized clinical trial in healthy humans.
Trial report in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 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
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Mitigating the Nocebo Effect in Biosimilar Use and Switching: A Systematic Review.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The Biosimilar Nocebo Effect? A Systematic Review of Double-Blinded Versus Open-Label Studies.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2018Pooled it
- Can Nocebo Effects Be Reduced via Open- and Closed-Label Counterconditioning?European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Nocebo Effects on Cowhage-evoked Itch: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Classical Conditioning and Observational Learning.Acta dermato-venereologica · 2021Trial
- Learning mechanisms in nocebo hyperalgesia: the role of conditioning and extinction processes.Pain · 2020Trial
- The "Are You OK?" Paradox: A Scoping Review of Nocebo and Negative Suggestion in Healthcare Communication.Dentistry journal · 2026Review
- Observational
- Healing vs. hurting words: the power of language in pain perception-a narrative review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Adverse effects and perceived benefits of medications in children with chronic noncancer pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- How professionals in pediatrics change the words they use to mitigate pain: A lexical description after a short hypnosis-based communication training.British journal of pain · 2025Article
- Generalisation of Placebo and Nocebo Effects: Current Knowledge and Future Directions.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Review
- Exploratory study of nocebo effect in senior medical students.Health psychology research · 2024Article
- Motivational communication skills to improve motivation and adherence in cardiovascular disease prevention: A narrative review.Clinical cardiology · 2023Review
- Placebo and nocebo effects: from observation to harnessing and clinical application.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- Vaccine hesitancy prospectively predicts nocebo side-effects following COVID-19 vaccination.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?Experimental dermatology · 2022Article
- Functional neurological disorder and placebo and nocebo effects: shared mechanisms.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2022Review
- Induction and generalization of nocebo effects on itch.Experimental dermatology · 2022Article
- Do individual psychological characteristics predict induction and generalization of nocebo and placebo effects on pain and itch?Frontiers in psychiatry · 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
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nocebo effects, i.e., adverse treatment effects which are induced by patients' expectations, are known to contribute to the experience of physical symptoms such as pain and itch. A better understanding of how to minimize nocebo responses might eventually contribute to enhanced treatment effects. However, little is known about how to reduce nocebo effects. In the current randomized controlled study, we tested whether nocebo effects can be minimized by positive expectation induction with respect to electrical and histaminic itch stimuli. First, negative expectations about electrical itch stimuli were induced by verbal suggestion and conditioning (part 1: induction of nocebo effect). Second, participants were randomized to either the experimental group or one of the control groups (part 2: reversing nocebo effect). In the experimental group, positive expectations were induced by conditioning with verbal suggestion. In the control groups either the negative expectation induction was continued or an extinction procedure was applied. Afterwards, a histamine application test was conducted. Positive expectation induction resulted in a significantly smaller nocebo effect in comparison with both control groups. Mean change itch NRS scores showed that the nocebo effect was even reversed, indicating a placebo effect. Comparable effects were also found for histamine application. This study is the first to demonstrate that nocebo effects can be minimized and even reversed by conditioning with verbal suggestion. The results of the current study indicate that learning via counterconditioning and verbal suggestion represents a promising strategy for diminishing nocebo responses.
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.