Vasopressin Boosts Placebo Analgesic Effects in Women: A Randomized Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Social cues and interpersonal interactions strongly contribute to evoke placebo effects that are pervasive in medicine and depend upon the activation of endogenous modulatory systems. Here, we explore the possibility to boost placebo effects by targeting pharmacologically the vasopressin system, characterized by a sexually dimorphic response and involved in the regulation of human and nonhuman social behaviors.

Methods

We enrolled 109 healthy participants and studied the effects of intranasal administration of an arginine vasopressin 1A and 1B receptor agonist against 1) no treatment, 2) oxytocin, and 3) saline in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel design trial using a well-established model of placebo analgesia while controlling for sex diff

SUBMITTER: Colloca L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4740270 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature