Open-label placebo reduced pain and rescue medication use among pediatric and adolescent patients with functional abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics.
“Although placebo responses probably play a role in virtually every clinical intervention, the use of deceptive placebos as stand-alone treatments has largely been discouraged because of ethical concerns about patient deception,” Samuel Nurko, MD, MPH, of the Center for Motility and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, and colleagues wrote.