SynthesisScientific reports2025
Effects of open-label placebos across populations and outcomes: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Methodologic challenges of patient reported outcome research: A systematic review of the treatment of cancer related fatigue with open label placebos and the trials.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Pooled 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
- Psilocybin in the Treatment of Cocaine Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Review
- Lymphovenous Bypass: Past, Present, and Future.Archives of plastic surgery · 2026Article
- Effects of prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation on open-label placebo responses.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Addressing demand artifacts in psychological research (and beyond).Behavior research methods · 2026Review
- Open-label placebo effects on psychological distress and hair cortisol in a randomized controlled trial - the moderating role of the five-factor personality traits.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Article
- The Placebo Effect in Rare Disease Clinical Trials: Measurement, Impact, and Statistical Approaches for Patient-as-Own-Control Designs.Clinical and translational science · 2026Review
- Effect of Multi-Antioxidant Supplement on Lipid Profile, Occupational Fatigue, Work Stress, and Hair Cortisol in Administrative Workers with and Without Obesity: A Quasi-Experimental Pilot Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Informing the patient of the placebo option: an ethical necessity likely to reduce inappropriate psychotropic prescriptions?Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Effects of an open-label placebo on divergent thinking performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The mind-bending power of placebo.Nature medicine · 2025Article
- The Possibility of Open-Label Use of Placebo in Healthcare Practice: A Systematic Review of Recent Clinical Trials.Cureus · 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
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This work synthesizes and updates findings from previous systematic-reviews and meta-analyses on open-label placebos (OLPs). For the first time, it directly tests whether OLPs differ in effects between clinical and non-clinical samples, and between self-report and objective outcomes. We searched eight databases up to November 9, 2023, and included 60 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), compromising 63 separate comparisons. OLPs yielded a small positive effect across various health-related outcomes (k = 63, n = 4554, SMD = 0.35, CI 95% = 0.26; 0.44, p < 0.0001, I
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.