RATIONALE: The placebo effect is a fascinating yet puzzling phenomenon, which has challenged investigators over the past 50 years. In previous studies, the investigators only focused on the placebo effect obtained within a single domain, and pain is the field in which most of the placebo research has been performed. However, recent research by our laboratory (Zhang and Luo in Psychophysiology 46:626-634, 2009; Zhang et al. 2011) showed that, in human subjects, the placebo effect can be transferred from one domain to the other, namely from pain to emotion. OBJECTIVES: The scope of this study was to investigate whether placebo analgesia could affect the depressive behavior in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Female C57/BL6 mice were trained to associate the context cue with elevated pain tolerance via a set of procedures. Then the forced swim test and tail suspension test were used to measure the depressive-like behaviors on the test day. Plasma concentrations of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone were also detected. RESULTS: Our results showed that the placebo analgesia, which was established by a set of procedures in mice, was transferable and could produce a significant antidepressant effect on depressive test. Plasma levels of corticosterone and ACTH further proved that the placebo analgesia that was established from pain-reducing training not only induced a significant placebo effect on pain, but also decreased significantly the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) response to stress and produced a stress-alleviating effect. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that placebo analgesia affects the behavioral despair tests and hormonal secretions in mice.
RATIONALE: The placebo effect is a fascinating yet puzzling phenomenon, which has challenged investigators over the past 50 years. In previous studies, the investigators only focused on the placebo effect obtained within a single domain, and pain is the field in which most of the placebo research has been performed. However, recent research by our laboratory (Zhang and Luo in Psychophysiology 46:626-634, 2009; Zhang et al. 2011) showed that, in human subjects, the placebo effect can be transferred from one domain to the other, namely from pain to emotion. OBJECTIVES: The scope of this study was to investigate whether placebo analgesia could affect the depressive behavior in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Female C57/BL6 mice were trained to associate the context cue with elevated pain tolerance via a set of procedures. Then the forced swim test and tail suspension test were used to measure the depressive-like behaviors on the test day. Plasma concentrations of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone were also detected. RESULTS: Our results showed that the placebo analgesia, which was established by a set of procedures in mice, was transferable and could produce a significant antidepressant effect on depressive test. Plasma levels of corticosterone and ACTH further proved that the placebo analgesia that was established from pain-reducing training not only induced a significant placebo effect on pain, but also decreased significantly the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) response to stress and produced a stress-alleviating effect. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that placebo analgesia affects the behavioral despair tests and hormonal secretions in mice.
Authors: Blake A Kimmey; Nora M McCall; Lisa M Wooldridge; Theodore D Satterthwaite; Gregory Corder Journal: J Neurosci Res Date: 2020-12-13 Impact factor: 4.164