The Effect of Expectation on Response to Phenmetrazine

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Abstract
To investigate the effect of expectation on response to an appetite-depressing drug, 50 experiments were carried out upon 4 healthy subjects of average weight. In all experiments, after a 5-hr, fast, subjects were given either phenmetrazine 25 mg orally, or a matching placebo 30 minutes prior to a test meal. A sham experiment was carried out to disguise the purpose of the study. In 28 experiments subjects were told nothing about the drugs and consumed a mean of 1860 [plus or minus]269 calories following phenmetrazine, as compared to 1900 [plus or minus]172 calories following the placebo (p > . 50). In the 22 ensuing experiments, subjects were told that appetite depression might occur. With this expectation, subjects receiving phenmetrazine consumed 1770 [plus or minus]82 calories, compared with a placebo mean of 1950 [plus or minus]141 calories (p<. 01). In these experiments, the effect of phenmetrazine on food intake was greatly enhanced when subjects knew that they might receive an appetite-depressing drug.

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