The Placebo Effect May Involve Modulating Drug Bioavailability

Summary

The total effect of a medication is the sum of its drug effect, placebo effect (meaning response of placebo), and their interaction. Current interpretation of clinical trials (the gold standard of evidence-based-medicine) assumes no interaction, and the mechanism(s) underlying such interaction have not been fully explored. One possibility is that the placebo effect may modulate drug bioavailability. Using caffeine as a model drug, we have recently shown that the placebo effect of caffeine ingestion prolongs caffeine half life. Due to the novelty of this finding and its important clinical practice and clinical research implications, it needs to be confirmed in another set of subjects and extended to additional drugs. The results of the study are expected to further our understanding of the mechanism of action of a widely used medical intervention, i.e., placebo. The results will be important for both clinical practice and clinical research.

Timeline

Start

2012-02

Primary completion

2013-02

Completion

2013-02

Publications

• Hammami MM, Yusuf A, Shire FS, Hussein R, Al-Swayeh R. Does the placebo effect modulate drug bioavailability? Randomized cross-over studies of three drugs. J Negat Results Biomed. 2017 May 23;16(1):10. doi: 10.1186/s12952-017-0075-2.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.