ReviewNature reviews. Rheumatology2023
Placebo effects in osteoarthritis: implications for treatment and drug development.
Review in Nature reviews. Rheumatology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Shedding light on pain management: a translational systematic review of light therapy for the treatment of chronic pain.EBioMedicine · 2026Pooled it
- Contextual effects of mesenchymal stem cell injections for knee osteoarthritis: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of 3'-Sialyllactose on Symptom Improvement in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2024Trial
- Selective EP4 Receptor Antagonism for Osteoarthritis Pain: Emerging Evidence and Future Directions for KF-0210.Pain and therapy · 2026Review
- Chondrocytes reprogram chromatin in hypoxic microenvironments to activate CADM1-AS1/HDAC1 complex-mediated anti-inflammation signals.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Osteoarthritis as a systemic disease.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2026Review
- Towards an individualised approach to pain management in inflammatory arthritis.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2026Review
- Association between cellular characteristics and clinical outcomes following autologous micro-fragmented adipose tissue injection for knee osteoarthritis.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2026Article
- Integrating network toxicology and in vitro validation to elucidate PET microplastic-induced osteoarthritis pathogenesis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Personalizing the Management of Knee Osteoarthritis.SMART-MD journal of precision medicine · 2026Article
- Considerations for Issues of Regression to the Mean and Contextual Effects in Clinical Trials for Pain in Rheumatic Diseases.Arthritis care & research · 2026Review
- Pathology-guided design of injectable hydrogels for precision therapy and cartilage regeneration in osteoarthritis.Regenerative biomaterials · 2026Review
- Hurdles to overcome for mesenchymal stem cell translation from bench to bedside.World journal of stem cells · 2025Review
- Research progress on mesenchymal stem cell‑derived exosomes in the treatment of osteoporosis induced by knee osteoarthritis (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Placebo response to intra-articular injections in knee osteoarthritis: magnitude, evolution over time, and influencing factors. A systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression.EFORT open reviews · 2025Article
- Placebo and nocebo phenomena in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a narrative review on current knowledge and potential future directions.Psychological medicine · 2025Review
- Single Injection of Highly Concentrated Hyaluronic Acid Provides Improvement of Knee Joint Arthrokinematic Motion and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Osteoarthritis-Non-Randomized Clinical Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The causal role of brain circuits in osteoarthritis pain.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2025Review
- Efficacy and safety of loxoprofen sodium cataplasms in the treatment of osteoarthritis: A randomized, multicenter study.Biomedical reports · 2025Article
- Mendelian randomization of serum micronutrients and osteoarthritis risk: focus on zinc.Nutrition journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis worldwide, affecting ~500 million people, yet there are no effective treatments to halt its progression. Without any structure-modifying agents, management of OA focuses on ameliorating pain and improving function. Treatment approaches typically have modest efficacy, and many patients have contraindications to recommended pharmacological treatments. Drug development for OA is hindered by the gradual and progressive nature of the disease and the targeting of established disease in clinical trials. Additionally, new medications for OA cannot receive regulatory approval without demonstrating improvements in both structure (pathological features of OA) and symptoms (reduced pain and/or improved function). In clinical trials, people with OA show high 'placebo responses', which hamper the ability to identify new effective treatments. Placebo responses refer to the individual variability in response to placebos given in the context of clinical trials and other settings. Placebo effects refer specifically to short-lasting improvements in symptoms that occur because of physiological changes. To mitigate the effects of the placebo phenomenon, we must first understand what it is, how it manifests, how to identify placebo responders in OA trials and how these insights can be used to improve clinical trials in OA. Leveraging placebo responses and effects in clinical practice might provide additional avenues to augment symptom management of OA.
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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.