The DOI matches its Crossref record; 40 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Conditioned Placebo Analgesia Persists When Subjects Know They Are Receiving a Placebo
Open accessAbstract
Unlabelled Belief in the effectiveness of a placebo treatment is widely thought to be critical for placebo analgesia. Many types of placebo responses--even those that depend on conditioning--appear to be mediated by expectations that are strengthened as treatment cues are reinforced with positive outcomes. However, placebo effects may occur even when participants are aware they are receiving a placebo. To address the question of whether conditioned placebo analgesia can persist in the absence of expectations, we studied the effects of long (4 days) versus short (1 day) conditioning to a placebo treatment. After an initial placebo test, a "reveal" manipulation convincingly demonstrated to participants that they had never received an active drug. Placebo analgesia persisted after the reveal in the long conditioning group only. These findings suggest that reinforcing treatment cues with positive outcomes can create placebo effects that are independent of reported expectations for pain relief.Perspective This article demonstrates a form of placebo analgesia that relies on prior conditioning rather than current expected pain relief. This highlights the importance of prior experience on pain relief and offers insight into the variability of placebo effects across individuals.
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“However, in some cases cue effects can persist even after reinforcement ceases, resisting extinction and sometimes even growing over time (34–37).”
From Social information creates self-fulfilling prophecies in judgments of pain, vicarious pain, and cognitive effort (2026) · cites this paper as [35]
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Cites
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A Comprehensive Review of the Placebo Effect: Recent Advances and Current Thought
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Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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“allow placebos to serve as either dose extenders for chemically active treatments(28,29) or effective treatments on their own.(17) However, expectancy theory is challenged by demonstrations that placebo treatments can result in analgesia even when participants are unaware they are receiving a treatment.”
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Sorted by citations
The Placebo Effect in Pain Therapies
Colloca, L. (2018) · The Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology · doi:10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-010818-021542 · Cited by 303
Self-citationThe placebo effect: From concepts to genes
Colagiuri, B., Schenk, L. A., Keßler, M., Dorsey, S. G., & Colloca, L. (2015) · Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.08.017 · Cited by 278
Self-citationCharlesworth, J. E. G., Petkovic, G., Kelley, J. M., Hunter, M., Onakpoya, I., Roberts, N. W., Miller, F. G., & Howick, J. (2017) · Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine · doi:10.1111/jebm.12251 · Cited by 210
Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect: An Affective Appraisal Account
Ashar, Y. K., Chang, L. J., & Wager, T. D. (2017) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093015 · Cited by 201
Self-citationPlacebo effects and their determinants in gastrointestinal disorders
Elsenbruch, S., & Enck, P. (2015) · Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology · doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2015.117 · Cited by 173
Metadata
- Authors
- Schafer, S. M., Colloca, L., & Wager, T. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schafer, Scott M.
- Venue
- The Journal of Pain
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-05
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 412-420
- ISSN
- 1526-5900 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4424173
- OpenAlex
- W2085650940
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8
- FWCI
- 8.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1f31da034516-01)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH076136)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (5F31DA034516-03, F31 DA034516)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (Z99AT999999)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies
- Keywords
- placebo effect, expectations, conditioning, analgesia, prior experience, interindividual variability
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Analgesia, Conditioning, Psychological, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Placebo Effect, Young Adult
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