ReviewEuropean journal of sport science2020
Advancing the understanding of placebo effects in psychological outcomes of exercise: Lessons learned and future directions.
Review in European journal of sport science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Best practice exercise for emerging depression in multiple sclerosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical rehabilitation · 2024Pooled it
- Comparative Effectiveness of Multiple Exercise Interventions in the Treatment of Mental Health Disorders: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2022Pooled it
- Attempting to Separate Placebo Effects from Exercise in Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- Working Through Your Emotions: Exercise Repairs the Experience of Positive and Negative Emotions Through Cognitive Emotion Regulation After a Recalled Stressor.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2026Trial
- Associations between expectations and responses to chronic resistance exercise in young adults with and without analogue generalized anxiety disorder.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Associations between expected and observed psychological responses to acute resistance exercise in analogue generalized anxiety disorder.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Acute ergogenic effects of repetitive maximal breath-holding maneuvers on hematological and physiological responses: a graded exercise test investigation.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Trial
- Exercise does not cause post-exertional malaise in Veterans with Gulf War Illness: A randomized, controlled, dose-response, crossover study.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Trial
- Improving movement behavior in office workers: effects of two multi-level cluster-RCT interventions on mental health.BMC public health · 2024Trial
- Resistance exercise training for anxiety and worry symptoms among young adults: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Influence of Music on Closed Motor Skills: A Controlled Study with Novice Female Dart-Throwers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Trial
- All Is Relative-A Call for Considering "Physiologically Informed" Control Conditions to Improve the Mechanistic Understanding of the Effects of Physical Exercise on Cognition.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2026Review
- Shifting the focus of ischemic preconditioning in exercise performance: from acute to chronic effects.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Exercise and Fear and Safety Learning.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2024Review
- Exercise and Anxiety.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2024Review
- Sodium Bicarbonate and Time-to-Exhaustion Cycling Performance: A Retrospective Analysis Exploring the Mediating Role of Expectation.Sports medicine - open · 2023Article
- The Interplay Between Expected Psychological Responses to Exercise and Physical Activity in Analogue Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a Cross-sectional Study.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2023Article
- Aerobic exercise in the treatment of PTSD: An examination of preclinical and clinical laboratory findings, potential mechanisms, clinical implications, and future directions.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2023Review
- Endocannabinoid and psychological responses to acute resistance exercise in trained and untrained adults.PloS one · 2023Article
- Influence of motivational placebo-related factors on the effects of exercise treatment in depressive adolescents.European child & adolescent 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
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the apparent strength of scientific evidence suggesting that psychological benefits result from both acute and chronic exercise, concerns remain regarding the extent to which these benefits are explained by placebo effects. Addressing these concerns is methodologically and at times conceptually challenging. However, developments in the conceptualisation and study of placebo effects from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and human performance offer guidance for advancing the understanding of placebo effects in psychological responses to exercise. In clinical trials, expectations can be measured and experimentally manipulated to better understand the influence of placebo effects on treatment responses. Further, compelling evidence has shown that the contribution of placebo effects and their underlying neurobiological mechanisms to treatment effects can be measured without administering a traditional placebo (e.g. inert substance) by leveraging psychological factors such as expectations and conditioning. Hence, the purpose of this focused review is to integrate lessons such as these with the current body of literature on placebo effects in psychological responses to exercise and provide recommendations for future research directions.
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.