Chronic Pain Studies and the Placebo Problem

Placebo response is a widespread and growing challenge in clinical drug studies for analgesics. Pain assessments are generally subjective to the patient and may be influenced by misunderstanding of the assessment criteria, exaggerated expectations, subconscious desire to please investigators whom patients come to trust as allies, and other factors.

As the effect size gets smaller due to increased placebo response, researchers keep seeking to understand this response and how to minimize its effect on their clinical studies. In this webinar, we will examine how the placebo problem affects the conduct and success of clinical studies in patients with chronic pain.

Topics will include:

• An overview of the placebo problem in chronic pain studies.
• Underlying mechanisms that contribute to the high incidence of placebo response.
• Methods used to measure patients’ response to inert compounds.
• Approaches researchers use to minimize the placebo response.