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Understanding Placebo and Nocebo Responses for Pain Management

  • Cancer Pain (D Marcus, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Placebo analgesia makes individuals experience relief of their pain simply by virtue of the anticipation of a benefit. A reduction of pain can occur also when placebos follow the administration of active and effective painkillers. In fact, studies indicate that placebos mimic the action of active treatments and promote the endogenous release of opioids in both humans and animals. Finally, social support and observational learning also lead to analgesic effects. Thus, different psychological factors and situations induce expectations of analgesia facilitating the activation of the top-down systems for pain control along with the release of endogenous mediators crucially involved in placebo-induced benefits. Recent scientific investigation in the field of brain imaging is opening new avenues to understanding the cognitive mechanisms and neurobiological substrates of expectation-induced pain modulation. Gaining deeper knowledge of top-down mechanisms of pain modulation has enormous implications for personalizing and optimizing pain management.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by intramural NIMH and NCCAM (11-M-0104; NCT:01328561). The authors thank Catherine M. Bushnell for helpful comments on this article.

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Conflict of Interest

Luana Colloca and Christian Grillon declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Building 15K, Room 203, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1156, USA

    Luana Colloca & Christian Grillon

  2. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Clinical Center, Building 10, Room 1C154, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1156, USA

    Luana Colloca

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  1. Luana Colloca
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  2. Christian Grillon
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Correspondence to Luana Colloca.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cancer Pain

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Colloca, L., Grillon, C. Understanding Placebo and Nocebo Responses for Pain Management. Curr Pain Headache Rep 18, 419 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-014-0419-2

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