Placebo analgesia is increasingly appreciated in many difficult to treat chronic functional gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS. However, investigations of interactions between psychological and biological placebo factors are still in early stages. Now, technologies have been developed that enable neural mechanisms of placebo analgesia to be studied more directly in humans.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Zhou, Q., Fillingim, R. B., Riley, J. L., Malarkey, W. B. & Verne, G. N. Central and peripheral hypersensitivity in the irritable bowel syndrome. Pain 148, 454–461 (2010).
Mayer, E. A. & Tillisch, K. The brain–gut axis in abdominal pain syndromes. Annu. Rev. Med. 62, 381–396 (2011).
Price, D. D. et al. Widespread hyperalgesia in irritable bowel syndrome is dynamically maintained by tonic visceral impulse input and placebo/nocebo factors: Evidence from human psychophysics, animal models, and neuroimaging. Neuroimage 47, 995–1001 (2009).
Zhou, Q. & Verne, G. N. New insights into visceral hypersensitivity-clinical implications in IBS. Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 8, 349–355 (2011).
Ellingson, B. M. et al. Diffusion tensor imaging detects microstructural reorganization in the brain associated with chronic irritable bowel syndrome. Pain 154, 1528–1541 (2013).
Schmid, J. et al. Placebo analgesia in patients with functional and organic abdominal pain: a fMRI study in IBS, UC and healthy volunteers. Gut http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2013-306648.
Zubieta, J. K. et al. Regional μ-opioid receptor regulation of sensory and affective dimensions of pain. Science 293, 311–315 (2001).
Petrovic, P., Kalso, E., Petersson, K. M. & Invar, M. Placebo and opioid analgesia—imaging a shared neuronal network. Science 295, 1737–1740 (2002).
Hróbjartsson, A. & Gøtzsche, P. C. Is the placebo powerless? An analysis of clinical trials comparing placebo with no treatment. N. Engl. J. Med. 24, 1594–1602 (2001).
Lee, H. F. et al. Enhanced affect/cognition-related brain responses during visceral placebo analgesia in irritable bowel syndrome patients. Pain 153, 1301–1310 (2012).
Acknowledgements
The authors are supported by a grant from the NIH from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney diseases (DK099052).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
PowerPoint slides
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, Q., Verne, G. Neuronal correlates of placebo in chronic FGIDs. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 11, 460–461 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2014.118
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2014.118
