How prior experience shapes placebo analgesia

• Published in: Pain (Amsterdam) Vol. 124; no. 1; pp. 126 - 133
• Main Authors: Colloca, Luana, Benedetti, Fabrizio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.09.2006; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Analgesia - methods; Analgesics; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Conditioning; Electroshock - adverse effects; Expectation; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Illness and personality; Illness, stress and coping; Learning; Male; Medical sciences; Neuropharmacology; Pain - drug therapy; Pain - etiology; Pain - physiopathology; Pain - psychology; Pain Measurement - methods; Pain Measurement - psychology; Pain Threshold - drug effects; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Placebo analgesia; Placebo Effect; Placebos - therapeutic use; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Learning; Conditioning; Expectation; Placebo analgesia; Analgesia; Experience; Analgesic; Treatment; Variability; Placebo; Placebo effect

Some studies indicate that placebo analgesia is stronger when pre-conditioning with effective analgesic treatments is performed, thereby suggesting that the placebo response is a learning phenomenon. Here we further tested this hypothesis in order to better understand when and how previous experienc...