Trial reportScientific reports2023
Imaginary pills and open-label placebos can reduce test anxiety by means of placebo mechanisms.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04250571 (Taking Open Label Placebo Further), which is not on this map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Taking Open Label Placebo Further: Randomized Controlled Trial of Imaginary Pills in Test Anxiety
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of open-label placebos across populations and outcomes: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Dispositional optimism and open-label placebo responses in hair cortisol concentrations and psychological distress-A randomized controlled trial.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
- The role of expectations and tailored feedback on the open-label Placebo effect.Journal of health psychology · 2026Trial
- Open-label placebos reduce hair cortisol concentrations and psychological distress - a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Roles of administration route, expectation, and belief in placebos in a randomized controlled trial with open-label placebos.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Open-Label Placebo Injection for Chronic Back Pain With Functional Neuroimaging: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- The pill you don't have to take that is still effective: neural correlates of imaginary placebo intake for regulating disgust.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Trial
- Open-label placebos enhance test performance and reduce anxiety in learner drivers: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Placebo-resistant gut bacteria:Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Trial
- Effects of an open-label placebo intervention on reactions to social exclusion in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Review
- Effects of prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation on open-label placebo responses.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- The association between test anxiety, learning strategies, and open-label placebo effects on academic test performance: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Reducing Emotional Distress with Open-Label Placebos: Assessing the Role of Motor Engagement in Pill Consumption.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Preoperative Anxiolysis and Treatment Expectation (PATE Trial): open-label placebo treatment to reduce preoperative anxiety in female patients undergoing gynecological laparoscopic surgery - study protocol for a bicentric, prospective, randomized-controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The roles of expectation, comparator, administration route, and population in open-label placebo effects: a network meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 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
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Placebos have been shown to be beneficial for various conditions even if administered with full transparency. Hence, so-called open-label placebos (OLPs) offer a new way to harness placebo effects ethically. To take this concept one step further, this study aimed at evaluating placebo effects without the use of a physical placebo, i.e., by imagining taking a pill. Healthy students (N = 173) with self-reported test anxiety were either randomized to an imaginary pill (IP; n = 55), an OLP (n = 59) or a control group (CG; n = 59). Both intervention groups were instructed to take two pills daily for three weeks. Primary outcome was test anxiety, secondary outcomes were sleep quality, general well-being and test performance. Groups test anxiety differed at study-endpoint, F(2,169) = 11.50, p < .001. Test anxiety was lower in the intervention groups compared to the CG, t(169) = - 4.44, p < .001, d = - 0.71. The interventions did not differ significantly, i.e., both were similarly efficacious, t(169) = 0.61, p = .540, d = 0.11. The interaction between group and time in explaining test anxiety was significant, F(5,407.93) = 6.13, p < .001. OLPs and IPs reduced test anxiety in healthy participants compared to the CG. This finding opens the door for a novel and ethical method to harness placebo effects.
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.