Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30915982›Full record

ReviewBritish journal of anaesthesia2019

Pain, placebo, and test of treatment efficacy: a narrative review.

Lene Vase, Karolina Wartolowska

Registry-linked trialOpen access · bronzeAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in British journal of anaesthesia, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07742228 (Assessment of the Efficacy of SCENAR Therapy in the Management of Chronic Non-specific Neck Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 63 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
63citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
9.9field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT07742228 narecruitingnot on this mapstarted 2026, after this paper: background citation

Assessment of the Efficacy of SCENAR Therapy in the Management of Chronic Non-specific Neck Pain

TypeinterventionalSponsorHopital FochRan2026 to 2028Enrolled76ConditionsCervicalgia, Neck Pain, Chronic PainArmsActive SCENAR device therapy, Sham SCENAR device Therapy
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

63 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 140 citations in OpenAlex.

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  3. Manual Therapy Effect in Placebo-Controlled Trials: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
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3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Lene VaseDepartment of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Electronic address: lenevase@psy.au.dk.
Karolina WartolowskaNuffield Department of Primary Care Health Services, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: karolina.wartolowska@phc.ox.ac.uk.
Aarhus University · DKUniversity of Oxford · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Over the past decade, the mechanisms underlying placebo effects have begun to be identified. At the same time, the placebo response appears to have increased in pharmacological trials and marked placebo effects are found in neurostimulation and surgical trials, thereby posing the question whether non-pharmacological interventions should be placebo-controlled to a greater extent. In this narrative review we discuss how the knowledge of placebo mechanisms may help to improve placebo control in pharmacological and non-pharmacological trials. We review the psychological, neurobiological, and genetic mechanisms underlying placebo analgesia and outline the current problems and potential solutions to the challenges with placebo control in trials on pharmacological, neurostimulation, and surgical interventions. We particularly focus on how patients' perception of the therapeutic intervention, and their expectations towards treatment efficacy may help develop more precise placebo controls and blinding procedures and account for the contribution of placebo factors to the efficacy of active treatments. Finally, we discuss how systematic investigations into placebo mechanisms across various pain conditions and types of treatment are needed in order to 'personalise' the placebo control to the specific pathophysiology and interventions, which may ultimately lead to identification of more effective treatment for pain patients. In conclusion this review shows that it is important to understand how patients' perception and expectations influence the efficacy of active and placebo treatments in order to improve the test of new treatments. Importantly, this applies not only to assessment of drug efficacy but also to non-pharmacological trials on surgeries and stimulation procedures.

Indexed as

Placebo EffectAnalgesiaHumansPainPlacebosTreatment OutcomePlacebosimplantable neurostimulatorsoperativeplacebo effectrandomised controlled trialsurgical procedurestreatment outcome

Identifiers

PMID30915982
PMCPMC6676016
OpenAlexW2925328599

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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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.