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Lessons from placebo effects in migraine treatment
The Journal of Headache and Pain volume 8, pages 63–66 (2007)
Abstract
In medical research, the placebo effect is an important methodological tool. Placebo is given to participants in clinical trials, with the intention of mimicking an experimental intervention. The "nocebo" effect, on the other hand, is the phenomenon whereby a patient who believes that a treatment will cause harm actually does experience adverse effects. The placebo effect strongly influences the way the results of clinical trials are interpreted. Placebo responses vary with the choice of study design, the choice of primary outcome measure, the characteristics of the patients and the cultural setting in which the trial is conducted. In migraine trials, the placebo response is high, in terms of both efficacy and side effects. Although medical ethics committees are becoming increasingly resistant to the use of placebo in acute migraine trials, placebo nevertheless remains the pivotal comparator in trials of migraine medications.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0 ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Antonaci, F., Chimento, P., Diener, HC. et al. Lessons from placebo effects in migraine treatment. J Headache Pain 8, 63–66 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10194-007-0360-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10194-007-0360-4