Abstract
The placebo response mimics the effects of drugs and provides relief from e.g. pain, when information suggesting pain relief is provided. However, under some circumstances, drug-antagonistic reactions are observed to signals that a painkiller will be administered. The prediction of the type of response to be observed, agonistic or antagonistic to the drug treatment, has proven difficult. Several theoretical models have been proposed to solve this problem. This chapter presents some of these models and the empirical findings supporting and not supporting them. It is concluded that a model in which the state of the organism at the time of drug presentation is taken into account may explain why sometimes drug antagonistic and sometimes drug agonistic responses are observed.
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