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Etude typologique du placebo-réacteur

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Summary

Ninety-nine healthy young males were given placebos and/or psychotropic drugs in double-blind tests. Forty % described effects of the placebo; this percentage was higher in those subjects who had received low rather than high dosage of the psychotropic drugs. The stimulating or depressive effect induced by the placebo seemed to be related to the acknowledged effect of the psychotropic drugs administered during the immediately preceeding experimental session. Actually, placebo-reactive subjects showed most of the time, atypical reactions to the particular psychotropic drugs they had identified, when receiving the placebo. Sympaticotonic or parasympaticotonic characteristics as well as performances in various psychological tests (16 P. F. Test by R. B. Cattell; Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey) did not differ in one or the other group, but placebo-reactive subjects could be differentiated into two sub-groups, according to their reaction to the placebo: those who felt stimulated were in majority vago-amphotonic individuals, with a schizoid tendency, wheras those who felt depressed were mainly sympaticotonic and cycloid individuals. Conditionning factors seem to be involved in the mechanisms of these various reactions.

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  1. Institut de Thérapeutique Expérimentale Prof. Dr. Dallemagne, Université de Liège, Belgique

    P. Hubin & J. Servais

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  1. P. Hubin
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  2. J. Servais
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Stagiaire de recherches au F. N. R. S., 1962–1963 et 1963–1964.

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Hubin, P., Servais, J. Etude typologique du placebo-réacteur. Psychopharmacologia 7, 235–255 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403691

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