ReviewLung2020
The Powerful Placebo Effect in Cough: Relevance to Treatment and Clinical Trials.
Review in Lung, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 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
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of Superior Laryngeal Nerve Block for Neurogenic Cough: A Single-Arm Meta-Analysis.Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery · 2026Pooled it
- Potential placebo bias in current trials of delirium prevention: a network meta-analysis of 86 randomized controlled trials.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025Pooled it
- Placebo and nocebo effects and mechanisms associated with pharmacological interventions: an umbrella review.BMJ open · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- Efficacy and Safety of Zihua Wenfei Zhisou Granule in Treatment of Postinfectious Cough: A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Phase II Clinical Trial.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Effectiveness and Safety of Codeine and Levodropropizine in Patients With Chronic Cough.Journal of Korean medical science · 2022Trial
- Validation of a visual analog scale for assessing cough severity in patients with chronic cough.Therapeutic advances in respiratory diseaseTrial
- Management of Cough in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Results of the Multicenter Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseTrial
- Cough Syrup Tragedies and the Commercial Determinants of Health.Indian pediatrics · 2026Review
- Efficacy and Safety ofFood science & nutrition · 2026Article
- Placebo effect on brainstem activity associated with capsaicin-evoked urge to cough in healthy humans.The European respiratory journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Predictors for change in cough-related quality of life and symptom severity in acute cough: results of an observational pharmacy-based study.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
- Disease finds its identity with treatment in the real world: the use of gefapixant in chronic cough.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of virtual, group cough modulation therapy for chronic refractory cough.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- The Effect of Attentional Manipulation on Cough Reflex Sensitivity in Individuals with Refractory Chronic Cough and Healthy Controls.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Etiologies and Treatment Outcomes of Chronic Cough Diagnosed with a Pathophysiological Diagnostic Procedure: A Single-center Retrospective Observational Cohort StudyThoracic research and practice · 2025Article
- Article
- Could cough hypersensitivity symptom profile differentiate phenotypes of chronic cough?ERJ open research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Interest in the placebo effect of medicines has developed from the use of placebo treatments as controls in clinical trials into a whole new area of research around how placebos fit into a psychosocial model of therapeutics. The large placebo effect associated with cough medicines is both a problem and an opportunity for researchers: a problem for clinical trials on new actives as the active must beat the large placebo effect, and an opportunity for harnessing the placebo effect to produce effective cough medicines without any pharmacologically active ingredient. This review discusses the mechanisms associated with the placebo effect of cough medicines and distinguishes between a 'perceived placebo effect' and a true 'placebo effect'. The efficacy of sweeteners in cough syrups is discussed as well as viscosity, mucoadhesion, and flavoring. The complexity of modern cough medicines is demonstrated by an example of a medicine which contains one active ingredient, and eighteen excipients which provide a complex and intense sensory experience to enhance the placebo effect and complement the pharmacological activity of the medicine.
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.