Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2007 Jul 7;13(25):3425-9.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i25.3425.

Placebo responses in patients with gastrointestinal disorders

Frauke Musial  1 , Sibylle Klosterhalfen, Paul Enck
Affiliations
Review

Placebo responses in patients with gastrointestinal disorders

Frauke Musial et al. World J Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Over the last several years there has been a growing interest in placebo, not only as an inert control in clinical trials, but also in the placebo effect as a group effect as well as a reaction in individual subjects. Methodological factors such as regression to the mean and natural history of the disease play a role in the evaluation of a possible placebo effect. In this report, we discuss several factors including Pavlovian conditioning, beliefs outcome, expectations, and other factors as potential mediators of the placebo response. Placebo effects are common in gastrointestinal diseases and there seems to be no clear difference between placebo effects in functional gastrointestinal diseases (functional dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome) and organic gastrointestinal disease (duodenal ulcer and inflammatory bowel disease).

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Characteristics of the placebo effect and possible confounding mechanisms compared to possible mechanisms of the placebo response[1,26].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hoffman GA, Harrington A, Fields HL. Pain and the placebo: what we have learned. Perspect Biol Med. 2005;48:248–265. - PubMed
    1. Finniss DG, Benedetti F. Mechanisms of the placebo response and their impact on clinical trials and clinical practice. Pain. 2005;114:3–6. - PubMed
    1. Colloca L, Benedetti F. Placebos and painkillers: is mind as real as matter? Nat Rev Neurosci. 2005;6:545–552. - PubMed
    1. Linde K. The specific placebo effect. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2006;49:729–735. - PubMed
    1. Klosterhalfen S, Enck P. Psychobiology of the placebo response. Auton Neurosci. 2006;125:94–99. - PubMed