UNLABELLED Improvements in placebo groups of antidepressant trials account for a major part of the expected drug effects. We aimed to determine overall effect sizes of placebo and drug effects in antidepressant trials, and to analyze whether the placebo effect in antidepressant trials also occurs for patient self-perception, general psychopathology, and quality of life. METHODS Search terms c...

We present empirical evidence that the distribution of effort required to solve CSPs randomly generated at the 50% satisfiable point, when using a backtracking algorithm, can be approximated by two standard families of continuous probability distribution functions. Solvable problems can be modelled by the Weibull distribution, and unsolvable problems by the lognormal distribution. These distrib...

This paper addresses the role of paracetamol in placebo-controlled osteoarthritis (OA) trials and the potential contribution to the large placebo response in such trials. Paracetamol is used as rescue medication in nearly all OA placebo-controlled trials. Triggered by the discussion about the placebo effect in general and because of the lack of systematic reviews of placebo effect in OA trials,...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In previous phase III studies, the PCSK9 monoclonal antibody alirocumab was administered at doses of 75 or 150 mg every 2 weeks (Q2W). CHOICE I (NCT01926782) evaluated 300 mg every 4 weeks (Q4W) in patients on either maximally tolerated statin or no statin, both ± other lipid-lowering therapies. METHODS CHOICE I included patients with hypercholesterolemia at moderate-to-ve...

Oral food challenges still remain the gold standard in the diagnosis of food related symptoms and are performed to obtain a clear “yes or no” response. However, this is often difficult to achieve, and so proposals may be appropriate for criteria on when to stop oral food challenges and declare a challenge as positive or negative. In daily practice it makes sense to challenge until clear objecti...

The placebo effect is a fascinating and complex phenomenon, and may well account for much of the effectiveness of many medical therapies, such as pain medications and antidepressants. While health professionals have long debated the role that placebos may play in health care, the counselling profession has devoted less attention to the placebo effect in counselling, despite claims that it may a...

The biochemical bases of the placebo effect are still incompletely known. We show here that the placebo effect in Parkinson's disease is due, at least in part, to the release of dopamine in the striatum. We propose that the placebo effect might be related to reward mechanisms. The expectation of reward (i.e. clinical benefit) seems to be particularly relevant. According to this theory, brain do...