In:
Psychosomatic Medicine, Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), Vol. 83, No. 9 ( 2021-11), p. 1041-1049
Abstract:
Reliably identifying good placebo responders has pronounced implications for basic research on, and clinical applications of, the placebo response. Multiple studies point to direct verbal suggestibility as a potentially valuable predictor of individual differences in placebo responsiveness, but previous research has produced conflicting results on this association. Methods In two double-blind studies, we examined whether behavioral direct verbal suggestibility measures involving a correction for compliance would be associated with individual differences in responsiveness to conditioned and unconditioned placebo hypoalgesia using an established placebo analgesia paradigm. In study 1 ( n = 57; mean [standard deviation] age = 23.7 [8.1] years; 77% women), we used behavioral hypnotic suggestibility as a predictor of placebo hypoalgesia induced through conditioning and verbal suggestion, whereas in study 2 ( n = 78; mean [standard deviation] = 26.1 [7.4] years; 65% women), we measured nonhypnotic suggestibility and placebo hypoalgesia induced through verbal suggestion without conditioning. Results In study 1, the placebo hypoalgesia procedure yielded a moderate placebo response ( g = 0.63 [95% confidence interval = 0.32 to 0.97]), but the response magnitude did not significantly correlate with hypnotic suggestibility ( r s = 0.11 [−0.17 to 0.37]). In study 2, the placebo procedure did not yield a significant placebo response across the full sample ( g = 0.11 [−0.11 to 0.33]), but the magnitude of individual placebo responsiveness significantly correlated with nonhypnotic suggestibility ( r s = 0.27 [0.03 to 0.48]). Conclusions These results suggest that the extent to which direct verbal suggestibility captures variability in placebo responsiveness depends on the use of conditioning and highlights the utility of suggestibility as a potential contributing factor to placebo responding when placebo hypoalgesia is induced through verbal suggestions.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1534-7796
,
0033-3174
DOI:
10.1097/PSY.0000000000000977
Language:
English
Publisher:
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2054116-8
detail.hit.zdb_id:
3469-1
Permalink