Placebo responses contribute to medical treatment outcome. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a single intranasal application of oxytocin can increase the placebo response in an experimental model of placebo analgesia in healthy volunteers.
Placebo responses contribute to medical treatment outcome. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a single intranasal application of oxytocin can increase the placebo response in an experimental model of placebo analgesia in healthy volunteers. The rationale to study the effects of oxytocin on placebo analgesia is based on previous studies showing that oxytocin fosters processes such as empathy, trust and social learning, which are key elements of the patient-physician relationship that is pivotal to placebo responses. In this experimental mechanisms study we used oxytocin as a tool to modulate these factors. Placebo analgesia is induced verbal instruction. Therefore two identically looking placebo ointments were applied to two sites of the participants' volar forearm. The ointments were introduced as a local anesthetic that could reduce or even abolish pain (placebo) and a control cream (control), respectively.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
80
Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, Germany
Placebo analgesic responses
In this study the placebo analgesic response is defined as the difference in pain rating (visual analogue scale \[0-100\]) to thermal painful stimulation on the forearm on the placebo site compared to a control site.
Time frame: ~ 45 min after appliction of oxytocin or saline
pain rating on the control site
VAS pain rating \[0-100\] in the control (non-placebo) condition.
Time frame: ~45 min after application
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