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ARTICLE

Neuropharmacological Dissection of Placebo Analgesia: Expectation-Activated Opioid Systems versus Conditioning-Activated Specific Subsystems

Martina Amanzio and Fabrizio Benedetti
Journal of Neuroscience 1 January 1999, 19 (1) 484-494; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-01-00484.1999
Martina Amanzio
1Department of Neuroscience and Centro Interuniversitario per la Neurofisio logia del Dolore Center for the Neurophysiology of Pain, University of Torino Medical School, 10125 Torino, Italy
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Fabrizio Benedetti
1Department of Neuroscience and Centro Interuniversitario per la Neurofisio logia del Dolore Center for the Neurophysiology of Pain, University of Torino Medical School, 10125 Torino, Italy
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Abstract

We investigated the mechanisms underlying the activation of endogenous opioids in placebo analgesia by using the model of human experimental ischemic arm pain. Different types of placebo analgesic responses were evoked by means of cognitive expectation cues, drug conditioning, or a combination of both. Drug conditioning was performed by means of either the opioid agonist morphine hydrochloride or the nonopioid ketorolac tromethamine. Expectation cues produced placebo responses that were completely blocked by the opioid antagonist naloxone. Expectation cues together with morphine conditioning produced placebo responses that were completely antagonized by naloxone. Morphine conditioning alone (without expectation cues) induced a naloxone-reversible placebo effect. By contrast, ketorolac conditioning together with expectation cues elicited a placebo effect that was blocked by naloxone only partially. Ketorolac conditioning alone produced placebo responses that were naloxone-insensitive. Therefore, we evoked different types of placebo responses that were either naloxone-reversible or partially naloxone-reversible or, otherwise, naloxone-insensitive, depending on the procedure used to evoke the placebo response. These findings show that cognitive factors and conditioning are balanced in different ways in placebo analgesia, and this balance is crucial for the activation of opioid or nonopioid systems. Expectation triggers endogenous opioids, whereas conditioning activates specific subsystems. In fact, if conditioning is performed with opioids, placebo analgesia is mediated via opioid receptors, if conditioning is performed with nonopioid drugs, other nonopioid mechanisms result to be involved.

  • pain
  • placebo analgesia
  • cognition
  • conditioning
  • morphine
  • nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs
  • endogenous opioids
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The Journal of Neuroscience: 19 (1)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 19, Issue 1
1 Jan 1999
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Neuropharmacological Dissection of Placebo Analgesia: Expectation-Activated Opioid Systems versus Conditioning-Activated Specific Subsystems
Martina Amanzio, Fabrizio Benedetti
Journal of Neuroscience 1 January 1999, 19 (1) 484-494; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-01-00484.1999

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Neuropharmacological Dissection of Placebo Analgesia: Expectation-Activated Opioid Systems versus Conditioning-Activated Specific Subsystems
Martina Amanzio, Fabrizio Benedetti
Journal of Neuroscience 1 January 1999, 19 (1) 484-494; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-01-00484.1999
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Keywords

  • pain
  • placebo analgesia
  • cognition
  • conditioning
  • morphine
  • nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs
  • endogenous opioids

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