Trial reportScientific reports2023
A randomized controlled trial of effects of open-label placebo compared to double-blind placebo and treatment-as-usual on symptoms of allergic rhinitis.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 11 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
- Association between gut microbiota and allergic rhinitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PeerJ · 2025Pooled it
- Low-Level Laser Therapy for Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International archives of allergy and immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Open-Label Placebos as Adjunct for the Preventive Treatment of Migraine: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Open-label placebos enhance test performance and reduce anxiety in learner drivers: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Effects of an open-label placebo intervention on reactions to social exclusion in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Informing the patient of the placebo option: an ethical necessity likely to reduce inappropriate psychotropic prescriptions?Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- The Possibility of Open-Label Use of Placebo in Healthcare Practice: A Systematic Review of Recent Clinical Trials.Cureus · 2025Review
- Clinical application, potential pharmacological targets and quality marker prediction of a TCM formulation used (Shenling Baizhu San) in the treatment of respiratory diseases.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Placebo effects are known for numerous clinical symptoms. Until recently, deception of placebos was thought to be essential for placebo effects, but intriguing new studies suggest that even placebos without concealment (open-label placebos) may help patients with various clinical disorders. Most of those studies compared open-label placebo treatments with no treatment conditions (or treatment "as usual"). Given that open-label placebo studies obviously cannot be blinded, additional control studies are important to assess the efficacy of open-label placebos. The current study aimed to fil this gap by comparing open-label with conventional double-blind placebos and treatment as usual. Patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis were randomly divided in different groups. The first group received open-label placebos, the second double-blind placebos, and the third was treated as usual. After 4 weeks, results demonstrated that open-label placebos improved allergic symptoms more than treatment-as-usual and even more as double-blind placebos. In addition, we observed that allergic symptoms in general (and also the open-label placebo effects) were reduced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The results suggest that seasonal allergic symptoms may be relieved by open-label placebos. We discuss these results by addressing possible different mechanisms of open-label and conventionally concealed placebo treatments.
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.