Conductor, here is the PDF full article for
Brain Mechanisms Underlying the Placebo Effect in Neurological Disorders....

http://www.functionalneurology.it/ma...in/article.pdf

I haven't read it yet.

A later article on the subject: Biological Psychiatry

Volume 56, Issue 2, Pages 67-71 (15 July 2004)

Placebo mechanisms and reward circuitry: clues from Parkinson's disease

Raúl de la Fuente-Fernández, etc

"Recent evidence indicates that the placebo effect in Parkinson's disease is mediated by the release of dopamine in the dorsal striatum. Interestingly, there is also placebo-induced dopamine release in the ventral striatum, which establishes a connection between the placebo effect and reward mechanisms.

Specifically, we propose that placebo responses are related to the activation of the reward circuitry. Here, the clinical benefit induced by placebos represents the reward. The magnitude of the placebo effect likely depends on the a priori probability of clinical benefit. This notion has profound implications in the design of clinical trials and placebo investigations."

http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.c...240-X/abstract

It's pretty clear that the use of placebos in PD trials is self-defeating, since inherent in the trial is anticipation of reward. It's illogical to use placebos when it is KNOWN that anticipation of reward increases dopamine production. There must be a way around placebos. Heck, if a nurse during the war didn't inject a soldier with salt water instead of pain killer, we might not even use placebos in clinical trials. ~Zucchini