Role of placebo effects in pain and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2018;
87:298-306. [PMID:
28595945 PMCID:
PMC5722709 DOI:
10.1016/j.pnpbp.2017.06.003]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2017] [Revised: 06/01/2017] [Accepted: 06/03/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The placebo (and the nocebo) effect is a powerful determinant of health outcomes in clinical disease treatment and management. Efforts to completely eradicate placebo effects have shifted dynamically, as increasingly more researchers are tuned to the potentially beneficial effects of incorporating those uncontrollable placebo effects into clinical therapeutic strategies. In this review, we highlight the major findings from placebo research, elucidating the main neurobiological systems and candidate determinants of the placebo phenomenon, and illustrate a perspective that can effectively frame future research on the topic. Finally, we issue a call for increased research on the efficacy of therapeutic strategies that incorporate placebo "tools," and argue that clinical trials of the placebo response in neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders has important and far-reaching translational and clinical relevance.
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