The Study
Effect of Open-label Placebo on Children and Adolescents With Functional Abdominal Pain or Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
This study showed that when kids were told they were taking a sugar pill with no medicine, their tummy pain got a little better. But since they and their doctors knew they were taking the sugar pill, we can't be 100% sure it was the pill itself that helped—or if it was just because they felt cared for or expected to feel better.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Kids with tummy pain were given a harmless liquid they were told was a placebo — and told honestly that placebos can sometimes help. They took it twice a day for 3 weeks, then had 3 weeks with no treatment.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 581 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1A 5-point drop in pain and nearly 2 fewer pills per week is meaningful for kids with chronic stomach pain — it means less discomfort and less need for medicine.
- 2Pain went down by 5.2 points on a 100-point scale, and kids used 1.8 fewer pain pills.
- 3But only 47% said they felt better overall — not a big jump.
- 4Their parents' hopes didn't predict who got better.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
JAMA pediatrics
Year
2022
Authors
S. Nurko, M. Saps, Joe Kossovsky, S. Zion, C. Di Lorenzo, Karla Vaz, Kelsey Hawthorne, Rina Wu, Steven L Ciciora, J. Rosen, T. Kaptchuk, J. Kelley
Related Content
Claims (6)
In children and adolescents with functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome, symptom improvement occurs regardless of whether they believe the placebo treatment will help.
Patients who know they are receiving a placebo still experience measurable improvements in their symptoms.
In children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 with functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome, taking an open-label placebo pill twice daily for three weeks is associated with a measurable decrease in daily pain and reduced use of rescue medication compared to no treatment.
In children and adolescents with functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome, taking an open-label placebo led to a 53.3% lower rate of rescue medication use during the placebo period compared to the control period.
In children and adolescents with functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome, taking a placebo pill they know is inactive does not lead to a significant improvement in their overall self-reported condition compared to no treatment, even though pain and medication use decrease.
In children and adolescents with functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome, open-label placebo does not increase anxiety or other adverse effects and is well tolerated.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.