ArticleThe journal of pain2023
Expectations for Improvement: A Neglected but Potentially Important Covariate or Moderator for Chronic Pain Clinical Trials.
Article in The journal of pain, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- To Ask or Not to Ask: Does Inquiring About Participants' Expectations Influence the Placebo Effect? A Placebo Mechanism Study in Healthy Volunteers.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Treatment expectations and pain-related outcomes in clinical trials of digital cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth with chronic pain.The journal of pain · 2025Trial
- Magnitude of the placebo response across non-surgical treatment modalities used for knee osteoarthritis: A meta-analysis with meta-regression.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2026Review
- Impact of chronic pain on the families of U.S. adults.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Mechanistic Explanations of Manual Therapy Do Not Influence Outcomes in Healthy Individuals: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Edible cannabis for chronic low back pain: associations with pain, mood, and intoxication.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Placebo effects in osteoarthritis: implications for treatment and drug development.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- Covariate Adjustment in Chronic Pain Trials: An Oft-Missed Opportunity.The journal of pain · 2023Review
- "Making Data the Drug": A Pragmatic Pilot Feasibility Randomized Crossover Trial of Data Visualization as an Intervention for Pediatric Chronic Pain.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Variability in pain-related outcomes can hamper assay sensitivity of chronic pain clinical trials. Expectations of outcome in such trials may account for some of this variability, and thereby impede development of novel pain treatments. Measurement of participants' expectations prior to initiating study treatment (active or placebo) is infrequent, variable, and often unvalidated. Efforts to optimize and standardize measurement, analysis, and management of expectations are needed. In this Focus Article, we provide an overview of research findings on the relationship between baseline expectations and pain-related outcomes in clinical trials of pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain treatments. We highlight the potential benefit of adjusting for participants' expectations in clinical trial analyses and draw on findings from patient interviews to discuss critical issues related to measurement of expectations. We conclude with suggestions regarding future studies focused on better understanding the utility of incorporating these measures into clinical trial analyses. PERSPECTIVE: This focus article provides an overview of the relationship between participants' baseline expectations and pain-related outcomes in the setting of clinical trials of chronic pain treatments. Systematic research focused on the measurement of expectations and the impact of adjusting for expectations in clinical trial analyses may improve assay sensitivity.
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.