• J Psychosom Res · Jan 2021

    A comparison of open-label and deceptive placebo analgesia in a healthy sample.

    • Nathan Disley, Susanna Kola-Palmer, and Chris Retzler.
    • Department of Psychology, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK.
    • J Psychosom Res. 2021 Jan 1; 140: 110298.

    ObjectivesA small number of studies have supported the efficacy of open-label placebos (OLPs) in reducing pain. However, research comparing the effectiveness of OLPs with deceptive placebos (DPs) is limited, and the relative impact on pain tolerance versus intensity are not yet understood. This study therefore, examined the effectiveness of a nasal placebo administered openly and deceptively on pain intensity and tolerance during a cold pressor test (CPT).Method75 healthy participants were allocated to one of three groups; OLP (n = 25), DP (n = 26) and no-treatment (NT; n = 24). A pre-test post-test design was used, with all participants completing a baseline and post-treatment CPT, following placebo administration in the treatment groups.ResultsA one-way ANCOVA revealed significant differences between groups for pain intensity, with planned contrasts revealing that this effect was driven by an increase in pain intensity scores for the NT group within the post treatment CPT, which was not evident in the OLP and DP groups. There were no significant differences between groups for changes in pain tolerance.ConclusionThe increase in pain intensity reported within the post-treatment CPT in the NT group was not apparent in either the OLP or DP groups, with no significant differences between OLP and DP effectiveness. These findings suggest that deception may not be necessary for effective placebo treatment and have implications for the management of pain.Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…