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Selected Articles

Clinical Research

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  1. Quantifying and controlling the impact of regression to the mean on randomized controlled trials in epilepsy.  Epilepsia (2023)

  2. Effectiveness of conditioned open-label placebo with methadone in treatment of opioid use disorder: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open

  3. Improving medication tolerance: A pilot study in disorders of gut-brain interaction treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology (2022)

  4. Effect of open-label placebo on children and adolescents with functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome: A randomized clinical trial.  JAMA Pediatrics (2022)

  5. Frequency of adverse events in the placebo arms of COVID-19 vaccine trials:  A systematic review and meta-analysis JAMA Open Network (2022)

  6. Placebos in chronic pain: evidence, theory, and use in clinical practice.  BMJ (2020).

  7. Conditioned open-label placebo for opioid reduction after spine surgery: a randomized controlled trial PAIN (2021)

  8. Open-label placebo vs double-blind placebo for irritable bowel syndrome: a randomized clinical trial PAIN (2021)

  9. Open-label placebo for chronic low back pain: a 5-year follow-up PAIN (2020)

  10. Open-label placebos for menopausal hot flushes: a randomized controlled trial Scientific Reports (2020)

  11. Placebos in chronic pain: evidence, theory, ethics, and use in clinical practice   BMJ (2020)

  12. Open label placebo: can honestly prescribed placebos evoke meaningful therapeutic benefits?  BMJ (2018)

  13. Symptom perception, placebo effects, and the Bayesian brain.  PAIN (2018).

  14. Open-label placebo treatment for cancer-related fatigue: A randomized-controlled clinical trial  Scientific Reports (2018) 

  15. Learned Immunosuppressive placebo responses in renal transplant patients  PNAS (2018) 5.

  16. Certainty of genuine treatment increases drug responses in intellectually disabled patients Neurology (2017)6

  17. Open-label placebo treatment in chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial   PAIN (2016)    

  18. Placebo Effects in Medicine.  New England Journal of Medicine (2015) 

  19. Altered placebo and drug labeling changes the outcome of episodic migraine attacks  Science Translational Medicine (2014)

  20. Active albuterol or placebo, sham acupuncture, or no intervention in asthma. New England Journal of Medicine (2011)

  21. Placebos without deception: A randomized controlled trial in irritable bowel syndrome. PLoS One (2010)

  22. Components placebo effect: Randomised controlled trial in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. BMJ (2008)

  23. Sham device v inert pill: Randomised controlled trial of two placebo treatments. BMJ (2006)

 

Basic Science Research

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  1. Brain-to-brain mechanisms underlying pain empathy and social modulation of pain in the patient-clinician interaction.  PNAS (2023)

  2. Placebo effects and neuromodulation for depression: A meta-analysis and evaluation of shared mechanisms.  Molecular Psych (2022)

  3. Reward and empathy in the treating clinician: the neural correlates of successful doctor-patient interactions Translational Psychiatry (2020)

  4. Dynamic brain-to-brain concordance and behavioral mirroring as a mechanism of the patient-clinician interaction  Science Advances (2020)

  5. Network analysis of the genomic basis of the placebo effect  JCI INsight (2017)

  6. Genetics and the placebo effect: the placebome. Trends in Molecular Medicine (2015)

  7. Classical conditioning of analgesic and hyperalgesic pain responses without conscious awareness. PNAS (2015)

  8. A neural mechanism for nonconscious activation of conditioned placebo and nocebo responses. Cerebral Cortex (2014)

  9. Sharing pain and relief: neural correlates of physicians during treatment of patients. Molecular Psychology (2013)

  10. Catechol-O-Methyltransferase val158met Polymorphism Predicts Placebo Effect in Irritable Bowel sy-ndrome. PLoS ONE (2012)

  11. Nonconscious activation of placebo and nocebo pain responses. PNAS (2012)

  12. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study on the neural mechanisms of hyperalgesic nocebo effect. Journal of Neuroscience (2008)

  13. Brain activity associated with expectancy-enhanced placebo analgesia as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Journal of Neuroscience (2006)

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Social Science Research

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  1. The effect of singular nonverbal behaviors of experimenters on pain reports. J Pain Research (2024)

  2. Placebos in pediatrics: A cross-sectional survey investigating physicians' perspectives.  J Psychosom Res (2023)

  3. Doctors Speak: A qualitative study of physicians' prescribing of antidepressants in functional bowel disorder.  Cult Med Psychiatry (2022)

  4. Psychological predictors of response to open-label versus double-blind placebo: a randomized controlled trial of irritable bowel syndrome.  Psychosomatic Medicine (2022)

  5. "Let's see what happens": Women's experiences of open-label placebo treatment for menopausal hot flushes in a randomized controlled trial. PLoS One (2022)

  6. Patients' experiences treated with open-label placebo versus double-blind placebo: a mixed methods qualitative study.  BMC Psychology (2022)

  7. Experiences of Patients Taking Conditioned Open-Label Placebos for Reduction of Postoperative Pain and Opioid Exposure after Spine Surgery (2022)

  8. Doctors Speak: A qualitative study of physicians' prescribing of antidepressants in functional bowel disorders  Cult Med Psychiatry (2022)

  9. Surgeons' behaviors and beliefs regarding placebo effects in surgery Acta Orthopaedica (2021)

  10. Small gods, rituals, and cooperation: The Mentawi water spirit Sikameinan.  Evolution and Human Behavior (2021)

  11. Placebo studies and ritual theory: A comparative analysis of Navajo, acupuncture and biomedical healing. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2011)

  12. Scientific tools, fake treatments, or triggers for psychological healing: How clinical trial participants conceptualise placebos Social Science and Medicine (2012)

  13. ‘‘Maybe I made up the whole thing’’: Placebos and patients’ experiences in a randomized controlled trial. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry (2009)

  14. Patient and practitioner influences on the placebo effect in irritable bowel syndrome. Psychosomatic Medicine (2009)

  15. Which patients improve: Characteristics increasing sensitivity to a supportive patient–practitioner relationship. Social Science and Medicine (2009)

 

Theoretical, Methodological, and Philosophical Analyses​

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  1. Open-label placebo: reflections on a research agenda.  Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.  (2018).

  2. The placebo effect: Illness and interpersonal healing. Perspectives in Biology and Healing (2009)

  3. The placebo effect in alternative medicine: Can the performance of a healing ritual have clinical significance?   Annals of Internal Medicine (2002)

  4. Do medical devices have enhanced placebo effects?  Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (2000)

  5. Powerful placebo: The dark side of the randomised controlled trial. Lancet (1998)

  6. Placebo effect studies are susceptible to response bias and other types biases.  Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (2011)

  7. Effect of interpretive bias on research evidence. BMJ (2003).

  8. The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial: Gold standard or golden calf?   Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (2001)

 

Bioethical Analyses

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  1. Informed consent and clinical trials: where is the placebo effect?  BMJ (2017)

  2. Are open-label placebos ethical?  Informed consent and ethical equivocations Bioethics (2016)

  3. Informed consent and placebo effects: A content analysis of information leaflets to identify what clinical trial participants are told about placebos. PLoS ONE (2012)

  4. To Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth, May Do Patients Harm: The Problem of the Nocebo Effect for Informed Consent.  The American Journal of Bioethics (2012)

  5. Deception of subjects in neuroscience: An ethical analysis. Journal of Neuroscience (2008)

  6. Sham procedures and the three ethics of clinical trials.  Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2004)

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Historical Analyses

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  1. Heresy, witchcraft, Jean Gerson and the use of placebo controls.  J Roy Soc Med (2023)

  2. Placebos in 19th century medicine: a quantitative analysis of the BMJ.  BMJ (2012)

  3. Placebo controls, exorcisms, and the devil.  Lancet (2009)

  4. Unbiased divination, unbiased evidence, and the patulin clinical trial. International Journal of Epidemiology (2004)

  5. Intentional ignorance: A history of blind assessment and placebo controls in medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine (1998)

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East Asian Medicine and Acupuncture

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  1. A Conversation with a Key Architect of Modern TCM in the West - Professor Ted Kaptchuk Chinese Medicine and Culture (2024)

  2. A systematic study of acupuncture practice: acupoint usage in an outpatient setting in Beijing, China Complementary Therapies in Medicine

  3. Placebo effects in acupuncture.  Medical Acupuncture (2020)

  4. Rewiring the primary somatosensory cortex in carpal tunnel syndrome with acupuncture. BRAIN (2017)

  5. The case of acupuncture for chronic low back pain. SPINE (2011)

  6. Recent clinical trials of acupuncture in the West: responses from the practitioners. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine (2010)

  7. Acupuncture trials and informed consent.  Journal of Medical Ethics (2007)

  8. Patient characteristics for outpatient acupuncture in Beijing, China. Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2004)

  9. Acupuncture: Theory, efficacy, and practice.  Annals of Internal Medicine (2002)

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Medical Pluralism​

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  1. The need to act a little more 'scientific': biomedical researchers investigating complementary and alternative medicine. Sociology of Health & Illness (2010).

  2. Varieties of healing. 1: Medical pluralism in the United States. Annals of Internal Medicine (2001)

  3. Varieties of healing. 2: A taxonomy of unconventional healing practices. Annals of Internal Medicine (2001)

  4. Medical malpractice implications of alternative medicine. Health Law and Ethics (1998).

  5. The persuasive appeal of alternative medicine. Annals of Internal Medicine (1998)

  6. Courses involving complementary and alternative medicine at US medical schools.  JAMA (1998)

  7. Chriopractic: Origins, controversies, and contributions.  Archives of Internal Medicine (1998)

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