Open-label placebo

An open-label placebo is an inactive treatment given with the patient’s knowledge that it contains no active drug. Clinical studies have found symptom improvements in some conditions despite this disclosure.

Placebo effect: A change in symptoms or other outcomes associated with receiving a treatment, shaped partly by expectations and context. Open-label placebos are a specific way to study placebo-related symptom change without concealing the treatment.
Irritable bowel syndrome: A disorder involving recurrent abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits without an identified structural cause. A prominent open-label placebo trial reported symptom improvement in people with this condition.
Double-blind study: A study design in which participants and specified study personnel do not know assigned treatment groups. Unlike open-label placebo trials, double-blind designs conceal treatment assignment to limit expectation and assessment effects.
Clinical significance: The extent to which an observed health change matters to patients’ daily lives or functioning. Statistical improvement alone does not show whether open-label placebo benefits are large enough to matter.
Conditioning (psychology): Learning in which associations between events or actions and outcomes alter later responses. Past treatment experiences may support responses even when the current pill is disclosed as inactive.
Chronic low back pain: Persistent pain in the lower back, commonly defined as lasting at least twelve weeks. Open-label placebo research has tested whether pain and disability can improve alongside usual care.
Concealed placebo: An inactive treatment presented without telling the recipient that it lacks the active treatment being tested. It differs in the defining feature of disclosure, not necessarily in the pill itself.
Evidence-based medicine: Clinical practice that integrates research evidence, professional expertise, and patients’ values and circumstances. It frames how limited trial findings should inform treatment decisions without displacing proven care.
Treatment expectancy: A person’s anticipation of how a treatment will affect symptoms or functioning. A positive treatment rationale can shape expectations without claiming the pill contains medicine.
Migraine: A neurological disorder marked by recurrent attacks of headache and associated sensory or gastrointestinal symptoms. Placebo responses in migraine trials help distinguish treatment effects from changes linked to expectation and context.

Linked from 3 pages