Trial reportJournal of substance abuse treatment2008
Can the blind see? Participant guess about treatment arm assignment may influence outcome in a clinical trial of bupropion for smoking cessation.
Trial report in Journal of substance abuse treatment, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antidepressants for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Antidepressants for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- Seeing Through the Blind: Belief About Treatment Randomization and Smoking Cessation Outcome Among People With Current or Past Major Depressive Disorder Who Smoke in a Placebo-Controlled Trial of Varenicline.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Trial
- Long-term nicotine replacement therapy: a randomized clinical trial.JAMA internal medicine · 2015Trial
- Association between physician beliefs regarding assigned treatment and clinical response: re-analysis of data from the Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group.Asian journal of psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Perceived medication assignment during a placebo-controlled laboratory study of varenicline: temporal associations of treatment expectancies with smoking-related outcomes.Psychopharmacology · 2014Trial
- Treatment assignment guesses by study participants in a double-blind dose escalation clinical trial of saw palmetto.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2014Trial
- Perceived treatment assignment and smoking cessation in a clinical trial of bupropion versus placebo.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2013Trial
- Incremental efficacy of adding bupropion to the nicotine patch for smoking cessation in smokers with a recent history of alcohol dependence: results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2011Trial
- Perceived drug assignment and treatment outcome in smokers given nicotine patch therapy.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2010Trial
- Psychological mediators of bupropion sustained-release treatment for smoking cessation.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2008Trial
- Changes in daily dose in open-label compared to double-blind: The role of clients' expectations in injectable opioid agonist treatment.Addictive behaviors reports · 2023Article
- Antidepressants for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Review
- Smokers' Treatment Expectancies Predict Smoking Cessation Success.Journal of smoking cessation · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In a placebo-controlled bupropion smoking cessation trial, we examined blind integrity, the link between blind integrity and quit rates, and whether side effects and changes in nicotine withdrawal symptoms or mood were mechanisms through which blind integrity is threatened. At a 12-month follow-up, 498 participants indicated whether they thought they received bupropion, placebo, or were not sure. Potential mediators of treatment effects on treatment arm guess (i.e., side effects, withdrawal, and mood) were measured during treatment, and 7-day point prevalence cessation was assessed at the end of treatment (EOT) and at 6 and 12 months after quit date. Overall, 55% of participants guessed their randomization correctly. Compared to guessing not sure, participants who guessed they were taking bupropion were more than twice as likely to have been randomized to bupropion. Similarly, participants who guessed placebo were twice as likely to have been randomized to placebo. Treatment arm guess was associated with quit rates. Including treatment arm guess with actual treatment arm in models of quit rates significantly reduced the odds ratio for bupropion efficacy at the EOT and at 6 and 12 months after quit date. There was no evidence for mediation. In bupropion smoking cessation trials, blind failure may occur and participant guess about treatment arm assignment is associated with quit rates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.