ReviewFrontiers in neurology2018
What Is the Role of the Placebo Effect for Pain Relief in Neurorehabilitation? Clinical Implications From the Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation.
Review in Frontiers in neurology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04454710 (The Efficacy of Pulsed Radiofrequency on the Saphenous Nerve in Osteoarthritic Chronic Knee Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers.
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 Efficacy of Pulsed Radiofrequency on the Saphenous Nerve in Osteoarthritic Chronic Knee Pain
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Toward an Embodied Medicine: A Portable Device with Programmable Interoceptive Stimulation for Heart Rate Variability Enhancement.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Trial
- Feasibility and acceptability of a guided internet-based acceptance and commitment therapy intervention (MobACT) for adults with chronic pain in Italy: A pilot mixed-methods randomized controlled trial.Internet interventions · 2026Article
- Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a guided internet-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention (MobACT) for adults with Chronic Pain in Italy: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Differences between experimental and placebo arms in manual therapy trials: a methodological review.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Review
- Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine-Immunological Basis of the Placebo Effect: Potential Applications beyond Pain Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Non-Invasive Neuromodulation in the Rehabilitation of Pisa Syndrome in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Physical Therapy Exercises for Sleep Disorders in a Rehabilitation Setting for Neurological Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Pain Reduction after Short Exposure to Virtual Reality Environments in People with Spinal Cord Injury.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Neuropathic Pain in the Elderly.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The Influence of Expectancy Level and Personal Characteristics on Placebo Effects: Psychological Underpinnings.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- The Knowledge of Contextual Factors as Triggers of Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Patients With Musculoskeletal Pain: Findings From a National Survey.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Editorial: Pain Management in Clinical and Health Psychology.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Precision medicine: retrospective chart review and data analysis of 200 patients on dapsone combination therapy for chronic Lyme disease/post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome: part 1.International journal of general medicine · 2019Article
- Different Electrophysiological Responses to Pain-Related Visual Stimuli Between Fibromyalgia and Chronic low Back Pain Women: A Pilot Case-Control Study.Chronic stress (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)Article
- Comparative evaluation of functional outcome and pain relief after pulsed radiofrequency of the saphenous nerve within and distal to the adductor canal in medial compartment knee osteoarthritis: A randomized double-blind trial.Journal of anaesthesiology, clinical pharmacologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
49 authors at 18 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is increasingly acknowledged that the outcomes of medical treatments are influenced by the context of the clinical encounter through the mechanisms of the placebo effect. The phenomenon of placebo analgesia might be exploited to maximize the efficacy of neurorehabilitation treatments. Since its intensity varies across neurological disorders, the Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation (ICCP) summarized the studies on this field to provide guidance on its use.
methodsA review of the existing reviews and meta-analyses was performed to assess the magnitude of the placebo effect in disorders that may undergo neurorehabilitation treatment. The search was performed on Pubmed using placebo, pain, and the names of neurological disorders as keywords. Methodological quality was assessed using a pre-existing checklist. Data about the magnitude of the placebo effect were extracted from the included reviews and were commented in a narrative form.
results11 articles were included in this review. Placebo treatments showed weak effects in central neuropathic pain (pain reduction from 0.44 to 0.66 on a 0-10 scale) and moderate effects in postherpetic neuralgia (1.16), in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (1.45), and in pain associated to HIV (1.82). Moderate effects were also found on pain due to fibromyalgia and migraine; only weak short-term effects were found in complex regional pain syndrome. Confounding variables might have influenced these results. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: These estimates should be interpreted with caution, but underscore that the placebo effect can be exploited in neurorehabilitation programs. It is not necessary to conceal its use from the patient. Knowledge of placebo mechanisms can be used to shape the doctor-patient relationship, to reduce the use of analgesic drugs and to train the patient to become an active agent of the therapy.
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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.