Publication: Generalisation of Placebo and Nocebo Effects: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

In everyday clinical practice, patients’ prior experiences with treatments often “carry over” to influence how they respond to new therapies—a phenomenon known as generalization, whereby learning transfers from one context or stimulus to another. In this narrative review, Lingling Weng, Kaya Peerdeman, Antoinette van Laarhoven, and Andrea Evers reviewed 23 studies to map current knowledge on how placebo and nocebo effects extend beyond their original cues, examining generalization of placebo and nocebo effects across different stimuli (e.g., pills to ointments) and responses (e.g., heat pain relief to pressure pain relief) for common somatic sensations such as pain, itch, dyspnea, nausea, and fatigue. Results showed that placebo and nocebo effects generalize across different stimuli and responses, the strongest transfer occurring when the new cue/response closely resembles the original one. Additionally, evidence suggests that employing both verbal suggestion and conditioning simultaneously increases the likelihood of generalization compared to using either method alone.

These findings underscore the need for further research to harness beneficial carry‑over effects and mitigate harmful ones in real‑world treatment settings.

Want to know more? Read the full article here.