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Prescribing Hope: The Placebo Effect Endures

  |  Issue: June 2018  |  

If it brings the patient comfort, I consider it a therapeutic success.

Philip Seo, MD, MHSPhilip Seo, MD, MHS, is an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. He is director of both the Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center and the Johns Hopkins Rheumatology Fellowship Program.

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References

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  2. Jefferson T. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (ed. PL Ford, version 9). 1909; New York: GP Putnam’s.
  3. de Craen AJ, Kaptchuk TJ, Tijssen JG, Kleijnen J. Placebos and placebo effects in medicine: Historical overview. J R Soc Med. 1989;92:511–515.
  4. Reeves RR, Ladner ME, Hart RH, Burke RS. Nocebo effects with antidepressant clinical drug trial placebos. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2007 May–Jun;29(3):275–277.
  5. Diehl HS, Baker AB, Cowan DW. Cold vaccines. An evaluation based on a controlled study. JAMA. 1938;111:1168–1183.
  6. Beecher HK. The powerful placebo. JAMA. 1955;159:1602–1606.
  7. Azaïs J, Vergne-Salle P, Bonnet C, et al. Meta-analysis of the clinical efficacy of the placebo effect from tumour-necrosis-factor inhibitors to treat rheumatoid arthritis after methotrexate failure. J Rheum Dis Treat. 2016;2:032.
  8. Demirkaya E, Lanni S, Bovis F, et al. A meta-analysis to estimate the placebo effect in randomized controlled trials in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2016 Jun;68(6):1540–1550.
  9. Vase L, Robinson ME, Verne GN, Price DD. The contributions of suggestion, desire, and expectation to placebo effects in irritable bowel syndrome patients: An empirical investigation. Pain. 2003 Sep;105(1–2):17–25.
  10. Cohen TF. The power of drug color. The Atlantic. 2014 Oct 13.
  11. Coste J, Montel S. Placebo-related effects: A meta-narrative review of conceptualization, mechanisms, and their relevance in rheumatology. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2017 Mar;56(3):334–343.
  12. Tiburt JC, Emanuel EJ, Kaptchuk TJ, et al. Prescribing ‘placebo treatment’: Results of national survey of US internists and rheumatologists. BMJ. 2008 Oct 23;337:a1938.
  13. Russell IJ. Consoler toujours—To comfort always. J Musculoskeletal Pain. 2000; 8(3):1–5.

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