The Influence of Expectancy Level and Personal Characteristics on Placebo Effects: Psychological Underpinnings
The Influence of Expectancy Level and Personal Characteristics on Placebo Effects: Psychological Underpinnings
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期望水平和个人特征对安慰剂效应的影响：心理基础
DOI：
10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00020
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发表时间：
2019-02-05
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Hu，Li
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhou，Lili;Wei，Hue;Hu，Li
安慰剂效应使广泛的临床实践受益，这可能会受到预期水平和个人特征的深刻影响。然而，关于这些因素是否独立或相互依赖地影响安慰剂效果的研究仍处于初级阶段。在这里，我们采用为期3天的受试者间安慰剂止痛范例(2天条件化和1天测试)来调查120名健康参与者(60名女性)预期水平(即否、低和高)和个人特征(即性别、性格乐观和焦虑状态)对安慰剂效果的影响。我们的结果表明，在测试阶段，疼痛强度的降低受期望和性别之间的交互作用的影响，主要体现在低期望水平的女性比无/高期望水平的女性更大程度地降低疼痛强度，而在高期望水平下男性比女性更大程度地降低疼痛强度。此外，疼痛不愉快的减少不仅受到期望和性别之间的交互作用的影响，而且还受到期望和性格乐观之间的交互作用以及期望和焦虑状态之间的交互作用的影响。具体地说，低期望值组中比较乐观的参与者或高期望值组中焦虑程度较低的参与者表现出更大的疼痛不悦程度的减少。综上所述，我们强调根据个人特征的评估来单独调节期望水平，以最大限度地发挥临床条件下的安慰剂效果。
Placebo effects benefit a wide range of clinical practice, which can be profoundly influenced by expectancy level and personal characteristics. However, research on the issue of whether these factors independently or interdependently affect the placebo effects is still in its infancy. Here, we adopted a 3-day between-subject placebo analgesia paradigm (2-day conditioning and 1-day test) to investigate the influence of expectancy levels (i.e., No, Low, and High) and personal characteristics (i.e., gender, dispositional optimism, and anxiety state) on placebo effects in 120 healthy participants (60 females). Our results showed that the reduction of pain intensity in the test phase was influenced by the interaction between expectancy and gender, as mainly reflected by greater reductions of pain intensity in females at Low expectancy level than females at No/High expectancy levels, and greater reductions of pain intensity in males than in females at High expectancy level. Additionally, the reduction of pain unpleasantness was not only modulated by the interaction between expectancy and gender, but also by the interaction between expectancy and dispositional optimism, as well as the interaction between expectancy and anxiety state. Specifically, participants who were more optimistic in Low expectancy group, or those who were less anxious in High expectancy group showed greater reductions of pain unpleasantness. To sum up, we emphasized on regulating the expectancy level individually based on the assessment of personal characteristics to maximize placebo effects in clinical conditions.