Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jun 18, 2015; 6(5): 416-420
Published online Jun 18, 2015. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v6.i5.416
Placebo effect in osteoarthritis: Why not use it to our advantage?
Gustavo C de Campos
Gustavo C de Campos, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo13087-000, Brazil
Author contributions: de Campos GC solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: Gustavo C de Campos has received fees for serving as a speaker and as a consultant for Sanofi-Aventis and PharmaNostra.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gustavo C de Campos, MD, PhD, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, PO Box 6111, Campinas, São Paulo 13087-000, Brazil. gustavoccampos@usp.br
Telephone: +55-19-983318000
Received: February 6, 2015
Peer-review started: February 6, 2015
First decision: March 6, 2015
Revised: April 28, 2015
Accepted: May 5, 2015
Article in press: May 6, 2015
Published online: June 18, 2015
Abstract

Osteoarthritis is a major cause of pain and reduced quality of life in the elderly, as well as a major economic burden. Unfortunately, there is no currently effective therapeutic strategy to prevent the progression of Osteoarthritis, and its treatment poses a great challenge to the medical community. Most of the treatment modalities currently available for osteoarthritis have small to moderate effect sizes, according to main meta-analyses and treatment guidelines. On the other hand, literature has demonstrated that placebo is considerably effective. The present article discusses the history of placebo effect and its scientific evidence, comments on ethical issues and provides insights about how it may be used to our advantage when treating osteoarthritic patients.

Keywords: Osteoarthritis, Placebo, Treatment

Core tip: Osteoarthritis is a major cause of pain and reduced quality of life in the elderly population, as well as an economic burden. Unfortunately, there is no currently effective treatment, and most of them show small to moderate effect sizes, according to main meta-analyses. On the other hand, literature has demonstrated that placebo has a considerable effect size in osteoarthritis clinical trials. So why not use it to our advantage?