Clinical study
A study of the placebo response

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Abstract

  • 1.

    1. A group of 162 postoperative patients was observed for the ability of such patients to receive significant relief of pain from subcutaneous injections of placebo and of morphine.

  • 2.

    2. There was a significantly higher incidence of relief from morphine in the placebo reactors than in the non-reactors.

  • 3.

    3. Morphine and placebo are less effective analgesics in patients with persistent pain than in those with pain of short duration.

  • 4.

    4. Less than half of the patients who received multiple doses of a placebo responded consistently to the placebo.

  • 5.

    5. There was no sex difference and no difference in intelligence between reactors and non-reactors.

  • 6.

    6. Significant differences in attitudes, habits, educational background and personality structure were demonstrated between consistent reactors and non-reactors.

  • 7.

    7. The complexities of placebo controls in clinical trials is discussed and suggestions made for dealing with this important methodological problem.

  • 8.

    8. A hypothesis to explain the placebo response is postulated.

References (12)

  • O.H.P. Pepper

    A rote on the placebo

    Tr. & Stud., Coll. Physicians, Philadelphia

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  • S. Wolf

    Effects of suggestion and conditioning on the action of chemical agents in human subjects—the pharmacology of placebos

    J. Clin. Investigation

    (1950)
  • H.K. Beecher

    Experimental pharmacology and measurement of the subjective response

    Science

    (1952)
  • S. Wolf et al.

    Toxic effects following placebo administration

    J. Clin. Investigation

    (1953)
  • E.M. Jellinek

    Clinical tests on comparative effectiveness of analgesic drugs

    Biometrics Bull.

    (1946)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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    Citation Excerpt :

    Then, in 1954, Lasagna and colleagues investigated the possibility of identifying “placebo responders” or “reactors” by administering placebos and morphine in postoperative patients under different sequential order and dosage number. This study found that the propensity to respond to placebos depends on different variables—both physiological and non-physiological—thus raising complex issues about how such a variability ought to be harnessed in clinical research and practice (Lasagna, Mosteller, von Felsinger, & Beecher, 1954). Wolf, in another study conducted in 1957, similarly concluded that it was not possible to isolate “placebo reactors” and “non-reactors” as if they were abstract and distinct entities, i.e., independent from the context in which the therapy takes place (Wolf, Doering, Clark, & Hagans, 1957).

  • Placebo Effects: Historical and Modern Evaluation

    2018, International Review of Neurobiology
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From the Anesthesia Laboratory of the Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.

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