Biology & Life Sciences

Open Highlights: Putting Placebos to the Test

Published March 1, 2017 Curated Collections

Medics have long recognised the curious power of the placebo. This Open Highlights Collection explores recent research into its biological basis and the complex ethical and practical issues that surround this phenomenon. Open Highlights use recent PLOS Biology research articles as keystones around which to nucleate a short synthesis of up to ten related research articles from other PLOS journals and from the wider Open Access corpus.

Image Credit: US National Library of Medicine

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Related Open Access Articles

Open Highlights

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10.1371/journal.pbio.2001998

PLOS Biology Putting placebos to the test
February 21, 2017 Liza Gross

Keystone Article

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10.1371/journal.pbio.1002570

PLOS Biology Brain Connectivity Predicts Placebo Response across Chronic Pain Clinical Trials
October 27, 2016 Pascal Tétreault, Ali Mansour, Etienne Vachon-Presseau, Thomas J. Schnitzer, A. Vania Apkarian, Marwan N. Baliki

Related Open Access Articles

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10.4103/1110-1083.183407

Egypt J Neurol Psychiatry Neurosurg A study on serum levels of testosterone and prolactin hormones in male epileptic adolescents Rabie MO, El-din ESA, Rashed KH, Bahnasy WS, El-Serogy HA – Egypt J Neurol Psychiatry Neurosurg
June 2, 2016 Mohamed Osman Rabie, El-Sayed Ali Tag El-din, Khaled H Rashed, Wafik S Bahnasy, Hesham A El-Serogy
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10.1371/journal.pmed.0050166

PLOS Medicine Greater Response to Placebo in Children Than in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Drug-Resistant Partial Epilepsy
August 12, 2008 Sylvain Rheims, Michel Cucherat, Alexis Arzimanoglou, Philippe Ryvlin
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10.1371/journal.pone.0062599

PLOS ONE Are Treatments More Effective than Placebos? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
May 15, 2013 Jeremy Howick, Claire Friedemann, Maria Tsakok, Robert Watson, Teresa Tsakok, Jennifer Thomas, Rafael Perera, Susannah Fleming, Carl Heneghan
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10.1136/medethics-2015-103333

Med Ethics Randomised placebo-controlled trials of surgery: ethical analysis and guidelines
October 24, 2016 Julian Savulescu, Karolina Wartolowska, Andy Carr
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10.1016/j.amsu.2016.10.007

Ann Med Surg Critical review of sham surgery clinical trials: Confounding factors analysis
October 29, 2016 Massimo Ciccozzi, Rosa Meng, Giovanna Ricci, Massimiliano Andrea Vitali, Silvia Angeletti, Ascanio Sirignano, and Vittoradolfo Tambone
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10.1371/journal.pone.0091727

PLOS ONE Role of Conditioning and Verbal Suggestion in Placebo and Nocebo Effects on Itch
March 19, 2014 Danielle J. P. Bartels, Antoinette I. M. van Laarhoven, Elise A. Haverkamp, Oliver H. Wilder-Smith, A. Rogier T. Donders, Henriët van Middendorp, Peter C. M. van de Kerkhof, Andrea W. M. Evers
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10.1186/s12893-016-0142-5

BMC Surg A survey on beliefs and attitudes of trainee surgeons towards placebo
April 27, 2016 Mathew J. Baldwin, Karolina Wartolowska, Andrew J. Carr
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10.1371/journal.pone.0155940

PLOS ONE How Health Professionals Conceptualize and Represent Placebo Treatment in Clinical Trials and How Their Patients Understand It: Impact on Validity of Informed Consent
May 19, 2016 Pascal-Henri Keller, Olivier Grondin, François Tison, Francois Gonon
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BioMed Centra

BMC Medical Ethics Placebo-controlled clinical trials: how trial documents justify the use of randomisation and placebo
January 11, 2015 Tapani Keränen, Arja Halkoaho, Emmi Itkonen, Anna-Maija Pietilä
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General Medicine

Gen Med Thoughts on Giving Full and Accurate Information
December 31, 2015 Ethelwyn Eleonore Rebelo

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Slice of PLOS is Open Highlights’ more laid-back sibling, highlighting Open Access research on the PLOS Biologue blog.

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