Karin Meissner

• Prof. Dr. med. habil.
• Professor at Coburg University

Objective This qualitative study aimed to explore patients’ experiences with a novel treatment approach for endometriosis-associated pain, termed ‘sinosomatics’. Specifically, it sought to understand women’s experiences of the treatment and its components, the effects of the treatment on biological, psychological, and social levels, and how the wom...

Background As placebo interventions could influence appetite and satiety in first studies, they are a promising tool for the future treatment of obesity. Furthermore, individuals with heightened body weight show increased selective attention for food cues. This study aimed to investigate whether placebo induced changes of appetite and satiety can a...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Leistungsbezogener Substanzkonsum wird weithin unter dem Begriff Neuroenhancement (NE) diskutiert. Ziel dieser Studie war es, einen ersten Überblick zu Prävalenz, Genderunterschieden und Beweggründen von NE an einer Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften (HAW) im ländlichen Raum zu geben. Hierbei wurden sowohl pharmak...

Purpose In light of the mounting prevalence of stress in contemporary society and the growing interest in stress reduction methods, this review investigates the potential of taiji as a viable strategy for alleviating stress. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CENTRAL), PsycINFO, and Web of Science were searched up to...

Introduction: For women who have experienced failed attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF) and face medical issues, leading to infertility, the renewed effort to seek fertility treatment, coupled with decreasing likelihood of success, can exert substantial emotional and physical strains. Consequently, many couples opt to discontinue treatment be...

Suggestions about hunger can generate placebo effects on hunger experiences. But, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are unknown. Here, we show in 255 women that hunger expectancies, induced by suggestion-based placebo interventions, determine hunger sensations and economic food choices. Functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subgroup (n...

This book sheds light on the translation of current mechanistic research on placebo effects to develop comprehensive and adequate strategies for better symptom management and treatment. This book identifies three core aspects to bridge state-of-the-art concepts with day-to-day clinical practice. First, lessons from mechanistic placebo research indi...

Nausea often occurs in stressful situations, such as chemotherapy or surgery. Clinically relevant placebo effects in nausea have been demonstrated, but it remains unclear whether stress has an impact on these effects. The aim of this experimental study was to investigate the interplay between acute stress and placebo effects in nausea. 80 healthy f...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention leisten wichtige Beiträge zur Vorbeugung von Krankheiten und Linderung von Krankheitsverläufen. Die Beratung von Patientinnen und Patienten zur Lebensführung erfordert Zeit, die in der medizinischen Routineversorgung häufig nicht ausreichend zur Verfügung steht. Einen möglichen Ansatz...

Introduction: Studies on mind-body approaches in patients with advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are rare. We performed a pilot study with follow-up until one year to explore changes in pain, quality of life (QoL), stress, and negative emotions in patients with advanced PDAC, who regularly practiced a standardized form of spiritual...

Expectancies, which are higher order prognostic beliefs, can have powerful effects on experiences, behavior and brain. However, it is unknown where, how, and when, in the brain, prognostic beliefs influence appetitive interoceptive experiences and related economic behavior. This study combined a placebo intervention on hunger with computational mod...

Expectancies, which are higher order prognostic beliefs, can have powerful effects on experiences, behavior and brain. However, it is unknown where, how, and when, in the brain, prognostic beliefs influence appetitive interoceptive experiences and related economic behavior. This study combined a placebo intervention on hunger with computational mod...

In spring 2022, an online survey was conducted among all members of the Medical and Open School of the International Society for Chinese Medicine (SMS). The aim was to learn more about the structure of the members in terms of socio-demographic data, therapeutic training and applications of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and to evaluate the cour...

Placebo research has made considerable progress in recent decades. This article presents examples of results from three areas of placebo research: placebo effects in clinical efficacy trials, neurobiological mechanisms of placebo effects, and the use of placebo effects in clinical practice. According to the present state of knowledge, placebo effec...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Interventionen zur Verbesserung der körperlichen Aktivität und Ernährung erhöhen nachweislich die Lebensqualität von onkologischen Patienten. Langzeitergebnisse zu Interventionsstudien gibt es bisher wenige. Ziele der Studie Das Ziel dieser Studie war ein 5‑Jahres-Langzeit-Follow-up einer 3‑monatigen Interventionsstudi...

Simple Summary Meditation induces an altered state of consciousness, which is often described by meditators as being in the present moment and losing one’s sense of time and self. Few studies have assessed these experiences. We invited 22 experienced meditators to participate in two experimental sessions lasting 20 min each (1) to meditate and (2)...

Introduction Despite growing evidence validating placebo effects in nausea, little is known about the underlying cortical mechanisms in women and men. Therefore, the present study examined sex differences and electroencephalography (EEG) characteristics of the placebo effect on nausea. Methods On 2 consecutive days, 90 healthy subjects (45 females...

Background Recent studies indicate that the administration of open-label placebos (OLP) can improve symptoms in various medical conditions. The primary aim of this 3-week randomized controlled trial was to examine the effects of OLP treatments on pain, functional disability, and mobility in patients with arthritic knee pain. Methods Sixty patients...

Background: Endometriosis is characterized by lesions of endometrial tissue outside the uterus. Chronic pain is considered as main symptom, but challenges can relate to various physical, mental, and social aspects of the women's lives. The aim of our study was to gain a holistic understanding of the everyday reality of women with endometriosis comp...

Early school times clash with the late sleep of adolescents, leading to wide-spread sleep restriction in students. Evidence suggests that delaying school starts is beneficial for sleep and recent studies investigated whether this also translates into improved academic achievement. We thus conducted a systematic review of the literature on school st...

The Covid-19 pandemic induced a radical shift towards digitally enhanced learning and teaching (DELT). Success of this adaptation depended on how much DELT had been provided before. The Bavarian Virtual University (BVU) is a university network to fund, promote and support DELT. The Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich as a part of this network impl...

Endometriosis is a widespread disease and commonly reduces the life quality of those affected. Scientific literature indicates different underlying immunological changes. Frequently examined tissues are peripheral blood, endometrial tissue and peritoneal fluid. Yet, knowledge on immunological differences in menstrual effluent (ME) is scarce. In thi...

School start times have been at the centre of many scientific and political debates given the accumulating evidence that bell times are generally too early, and thus lead to an epidemic of sleep restriction in the student population. Recent media attention has conveyed the message that later school starts not only improve sleep but also result in b...

After a flight across multiple time zones, most people show a transient state of circadian misalignment causing temporary malaise known as jetlag disorder. The severity of the elicited symptoms is postulated to depend mostly on circadian factors such as the number of time zones crossed and the direction of travel. Here, we examined the influence of...

Context: Migraine is a common neurologic disorder in children and adolescents. However, a comparison of multiple nonpharmacological treatments is lacking. Objective: To examine whether nonpharmacological treatments are more effective than waiting list and whether there are differences between interventions regarding efficacy. Data sources: Sys...

Background Endometriosis is widespread among women in reproductive age and quite commonly reduces life quality of those affected by symptoms like dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia or infertility. The scientific literature indicates many immunological changes like reduced cytotoxicity of natural killer cells or altered concentrations of cytokines and cell a...

Introduction: Clinical and laboratory studies demonstrate that placebo and nocebo effects influence various symptoms and conditions after the administration of both inert and active treatments. Objective: There is an increasing need for up-to-date recommendations on how to inform patients about placebo and nocebo effects in clinical practice and...

In this proof-of-concept study, we tested whether placebo effects can be monitored and predicted by plasma proteins. In a randomized controlled design, 90 participants were exposed to a nauseating stimulus on two separate days and were randomly allocated to placebo treatment or no treatment on the second day. Significant placebo effects on nausea,...

Numerous studies have shown that the mere expectation improvement can alleviate symptoms in various conditions. These placebo effects often include reliable changes in central and peripheral organ systems. Here, we tested for the first time whether placebo effects can be monitored and predicted by plasma proteins. In a randomized controlled design,...

Importance Migraine is one of the most common neurologic disorders in children and adolescents. However, a quantitative comparison of multiple preventive pharmacologic treatments in the pediatric population is lacking. Objective To examine whether prophylactic pharmacologic treatments are more effective than placebo and whether there are differenc...

Physical long-term impacts of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (TTC) remain controversial and an underestimation of their severity becomes increasingly evident. Even less is known about mental long-term impacts of TTC. This study aims at a better understanding of the physical and mental long-term effects of TTC in comparison to myocardial infarctions (MI)....

Context and Aims Psychosocial risk factors are known to result in either takotsubo syndrome (TTS) or myocardial infarction (MI). In this article, the results of a cross-sectional study are presented within the framework of “progressive somatization” by comparing the psychosocial traits of TTS and MI patients. Design/Subjects and Methods 136 patien...

Introduction Tactile stimulation during a placebo treatment could enhance its credibility and thereby boost positive treatment expectations and the placebo effect. This experimental study aimed to investigate the interplay between tactile stimulation, expectation, and treatment credibility for the placebo effect in nausea. Methods Ninety healthy p...

Background: Recent research shows that placebo mechanisms can be utilized in ethical and legal ways such as in open-label conditions, when patients know that they receive placebos, and through psychological interventions aiming to optimize patients’ expectations. Showing that placebo interventions are also cost-efficient could improve their accepta...

The etiology of takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC)—a rare, reversible, and acquired form of cardiac diseases—is not yet fully explained. An exaggerated activation of the sympathetic-nervous-system (SNS) following stressful psychosocial life events is discussed to be of key importance. In this experimental study, we tested whether TTC patients, compared...

Background: In the framework of dual-process theories, concepts of placebo responses (e.g., expectation, hope, meaning, interpersonal healing and belief) are related to System-1 based processes. In this exploratory study, we investigated whether System-1 dominance predicts placebo responsiveness in an experimental motion sickness paradigm. Methods...

This study is based on the relationship between meditation, the present moment, and psychophysiology. We employed the metronome task to operationalize the extension of the present moment. A pre-post longitudinal study was conducted. The performance in the metronome task was compared before and after the interventions (meditation, story). The aim wa...

Objective: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons, including pain and related outcomes. This work evaluates current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel. Methods: A steering...

Objective The expectation of developing side effects can enhance the likelihood to develop them – a phenomenon referred to as nocebo effect. Whether nocebo effects can be reduced by lowering negative expectancies, is not clear. The aim of this prospective study was to learn more about the factors contributing to nausea expectancy and their potentia...

Objective: Patients' expectations about the benefit of an intervention are important determinants of the placebo effect. Little is known about the extent to which expectations influence outcomes of treatments in the field of appetite regulation. This study aimed to investigate the effects of treatment-related expectations on subjective and objectiv...

Objective: To assess the evidence for the safety and efficacy of invasive procedures for reducing chronic pain and improving function and health-related quality of life compared with sham (placebo) procedures. Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis. Methods: Studies were identified by searching multiple electronic databases, examining re...

Background In a systematic review and meta-analysis we summarize the available evidence on how frequently general practitioners/family physicians (GPs) use pure placebos (e.g., placebo pills) and non-specific therapies (sometimes referred to as impure placebos; e.g., antibiotics for common cold). Methods We searched Medline, PubMed and SCOPUS up t...

Protocol. Protocol. (PDF)

Reasons. Reasons for prescribing placebo interventions. (PDF)

Numeric data on frequency of use. Proportion (95%CI) of physicians using any type of placebo, pure placebos and non-specific therapies. (PDF)

Specific interventions used as placebos. Proportions (95%CI) of physicians having used specific interventions as placebos. (PDF)

Results of quality assessment. Results of quality assessment of individual studies. (PDF)

Definitions. Definitions and examples of placebo interventions given to survey participants in included studies. (PDF)

Search strategies. Search strategies for PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Google Scholar. (PDF)

Raw data for meta-analysis. Raw data for meta-analysis. (XLSX)

Background: Placebo and nocebo effects occur in clinical or laboratory medical contexts after administration of an inert treatment or as part of active treatments and are due to psychobiological mechanisms such as expectancies of the patient. Placebo and nocebo studies have evolved from predominantly methodological research into a far-reaching int...

Treatment-related expectations are important predictors for placebo effects in various medical conditions. They are formed by verbal and nonverbal cues during the administration of treatments, such as verbal suggestions, conscious and unconscious associations with previous treatments, characteristics of patients and health-care providers as well as...

Background: High expectations about acupuncture might contribute to larger treatment effects (Prady et al., 2015). However, problems in the assessment are well known: 1) floor or ceiling effects lower variance; 2) expectation measures include general beliefs about complementary medicine; 3) construct validity of expectation measures remains unclear...

Since the early Gestaltists there has been a strong interest in the question of how problem solvers get stuck in a mental impasse. A key idea is that the repeated activation of a successful strategy from the past results in a mental set (‘Einstellung’) which determines and constrains the option space to solve a problem. We propose that this phenome...

BACKGROUND: Nausea is commonly experienced as a symptom and side-effect of treatment. Despite the availability of a variety of antiemetic agents, management of nausea remains challenging. Stress and negative emotions can further compound symptoms. Placebo interventions can be used to quantify the effect of such contextual factors on the efficacy of...

BACKGROUND: Stress impairs frontal lobe function, affects cognitive performance and elicits changes in decision making strategies (SIDI-model, Yu 2016). Administration of cortisol can impair performance in the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT, Frederick 2005), indicating a shift towards more intuitive thinking Margittai et al., 2016). This study inve...

Background A growing body of evidence suggests that healthcare practitioners who enhance how they express empathy can improve patient health, and reduce medico-legal risk. However we do not know how consistently healthcare practitioners express adequate empathy. In this study, we addressed this gap by investigating patient rankings of practitioner...

Erwartungen des Patienten erhöhen die Wahrscheinlichkeit ihres Eintretens und sind so Hauptauslöser von Placebo- und Noceboeffekten. Starke Placeboeffekte sind nicht nur regelmäßig bei medikamentöser oder nichtmedikamentöser Scheinbehandlung in placebokontrollierten Studien nachweisbar, sondern tragen zu jeder echten Behandlung wesentlich bei. Für...

Recent placebo research has shown that the effectiveness of medical treatments depends not only on specific characteristics, such as pharmacological agents or physical properties, but also on contextual factors, including the patient’s expectations, emotions, and beliefs. This explains why even inert treatments can lead to substantial symptom impro...

1st official SiPS-Conference (Society for interdisciplinary Placebo Studies)

(Abstracted from Obstet Gynecol 2016;128:1134–1142) The underlying causal mechanisms for endometriosis are poorly understood. There is a weak correlation between the severity of organic pathology and reported pain intensity in women with endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis is a gynecological disorder affecting 6-10% of all women in their reproductive age. There is an emerging view in the literature that psychological trauma plays a central role in the pathogenesis of pelvic pain, one of the core symptoms of endometriosis. Here, we report central nervous mechanisms of a novel combination of p...

Objective: Improvement of nausea by placebo interventions has recently been demonstrated in clinical trials and experimental settings. However, many questions regarding placebo effects on nausea remain unanswered. For example, nausea reduction in women could only be achieved when the placebo intervention was "enhanced" by conditioning, while men r...

Objective: To evaluate whether psychotherapy with somatosensory stimulation is effective for the treatment of pain and quality of life in patients with endometriosis-related pain. Methods: Patients with a history of endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain were randomized to either psychotherapy with somatosensory stimulation (ie, different techniq...

We tested the hypothesis that a suggestive placebo intervention can reduce the subjective and neurobiological stress response to psychosocial stress. Fifty-four healthy male subjects with elevated levels of trait anxiety were randomly assigned in a 4:4:1 fashion to receive either no treatment (n = 24), a placebo pill (n = 24), or a herbal drug (n =...

A variety of psychological interventions to treat depressive disorders have been developed and are used in primary care. In a systematic review, we compared the effectiveness of psychological treatments grouped by theoretical background, intensity of contact with the health care professional, and delivery mode for depressed patients in this setting...

Objectives To assess the quantity and quality of randomised, sham-controlled studies of surgery and invasive procedures and estimate the treatment-specific and non-specific effects of those procedures. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources We searched PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, CENTRAL (Cochrane Library), PILOTS, PsycInfo, DoD Biome...

Only a few studies have investigated the sense of time in experienced meditators. In the current case–control study, we investigated whether 20 practitioners in transcendental meditation (TM) showed differences in the perception of time as compared to 20 matched controls. Perception of time was assessed with a battery of psychophysical tasks includ...

Recent research suggests that bodily signals and interoception are strongly related to our sense of time. Mindfulness meditators train to be aware of their body states and therefore could be more accurate at interval timing. In this study, n = 22 experienced mindfulness meditators and n = 22 matched controls performed both, an acoustic and a visual...

Objective. There is mounting evidence that more elaborate treatment rituals trigger larger nonspecific effects. The reasons for this remain unclear. In a pilot field study, we investigated the role of psychophysiological changes during a touch-based healing ritual for improvements in subjective well-being. Methods. Heart rate, respiratory rate, and...

We studied the expectation effects associated with brands by labeling placebo interventions (original and generic analgesic) and investigating the potential differences in efficacy between the two placebos in dealing with noxious heat pain, as well as exploring the neurometabolic correlates of the placebo response. We applied a two by two design wi...

Somatic sensations induced by placebos are a frequent phenomenon whose etiology and clinical relevance remains unknown. In this study, we have evaluated the quantitative, qualitative, spatial, and temporal characteristics of placebo-induced somatic sensations in response to three different placebo interventions: (1) placebo irritant solution, (2) p...

Medical interventions are always embedded in a psychosocial context. This context determines not only whether a placebo treatment is effective, but also the size of the overall benefit of active therapy for the patient. The psychological mechanisms that underlie placebo effects comprise expectations, associative learning, and the reduction of negat...

Experienced meditators typically report that they experience time slowing down in meditation practice as well as in everyday life. Conceptually this phenomenon may be understood through functional states of mindfulness, i.e., by attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and enhanced memory. However, hardly any systematic empirical w...