Clinical trial NCT04669093: Individual Differences in Placebo Analgesic Effects
Official title: Person by Situation Interaction: Matching Suggestions to Participants' Motivational Styles
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy
Lead sponsor: Trustees of Dartmouth College
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-12-16
Enrollment: 60
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 55
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: This is a within-participant design. Each participant will participate in two sessions. In both sessions, an over-the-counter hand cream will be applied to their skin, accompanied by a placebo suggestion that the cream is analgesic. In one session, the suggestion will match the participant's motivational style, and in the other session the suggestion will not match their motivational style. The order of sessions will be counterbalanced across participants. Each session will also include a control condition, in which participants will be told that the cream has no affect. The same over-the-counter hand cream will be used in all sessions.
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: This study examines the effects of placebo suggestions tailored to match or mismatch individual participants' motivational styles-an issue of person-situation 'fit' with important effects in public health settings, but which has been ignored in past research.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy participants
* Dominant promotion focus or dominant prevention focus (based on our screening)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Currently or recently suffered from chronic pain (based on screening)
* Cannot tolerate heat pain applied to the forearm, based on a calibration task at the beginning of the experiment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Changes in subjective ratings of acute thermal pain
timeFrame: Measured repeatedly, immediately after thermal stimuli on the day of participation. Averaged and compared across interventions.
measure: Changes in subjective ratings of pain expectations
timeFrame: Measured repeatedly, immediately before thermal stimuli on the day of participation. Averaged and compared across interventions.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Facial expressions
timeFrame: Immediate response measured during painful stimulation on the day of participation. Averaged and compared across interventions.
measure: Thermal imaging of the face
timeFrame: Immediate response measured during painful stimulation on the day of participation. Averaged and compared across interventions.
measure: Changes in skin conductance response measured with a Biopac device
timeFrame: Immediate response measured during painful stimulation on the day of participation. Averaged and compared across interventions.
measure: Changes in heart rate measured with a Biopac device
timeFrame: Immediate response measured during painful stimulation on the day of participation. Averaged and compared across interventions.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hanover
country: United States
facility: Dartmouth College
state: New Hampshire
Study officials:
affiliation: Dartmouth College
name: Tor D Wager, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: