Trial reportPsychopharmacology2014
Perceived medication assignment during a placebo-controlled laboratory study of varenicline: temporal associations of treatment expectancies with smoking-related outcomes.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of varenicline and bupropion on laboratory smoking outcomes: Meta-analysis of randomized, placebo-controlled human laboratory studies.Addiction biology · 2022Pooled 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
- A Psychometric Evaluation of the Stanford Expectations of Treatment Scale (SETS) in the Context of a Smoking Cessation Trial.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Trial
- Effects of varenicline on alcohol cue reactivity in heavy drinkers.Psychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- Mechanisms of Perceived Treatment Assignment and Subsequent Expectancy Effects in a Double Blind Placebo Controlled RCT of Major Depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationaleExpectancies regarding treatment assignment may influence outcomes in placebo-controlled trials above and beyond actual treatment assignment. For smoking pharmacotherapies, guessing enrollment in the active medication treatment is associated with higher abstinence rates. However, placebo-controlled trials of smoking pharmacotherapies rarely assess perceived treatment assignment and those that do only collect this information after reaching full dosage.
objectivesTo determine the temporal relationship between treatment expectancies and smoking-related variables, we assessed the impact of treatment guess during a placebo-controlled laboratory study of varenicline on measures of craving, smoking reward, and smoking reinforcement. We hypothesized that treatment guess at mid-titration would influence smoking-related measures at full dosage, above and beyond actual medication effects. We also explored factors related to guess stability and differences in blind fidelity between mid-drug titration and full dosage.
methodsEighty-eight participants completed laboratory assessments at baseline, mid-titration, and full dosage that involved self-report and behavioral measures of tonic craving, cue-provoked craving, smoking reward, and smoking reinforcement. Participants guessed treatment assignment at mid-titration and full dosage.
resultsGeneralized linear models confirmed that, beyond actual treatment assignment, treatment guess improved model fit for both self-report and behavioral smoking-related measures. Further, accuracy of treatment guess improved from titration to full dosage, and specific demographic factors (e.g., gender, race) were associated with type of treatment guess and guess stability across time.
conclusionsThese results reinforce the importance of assessing perceived treatment assignment repeatedly during placebo-controlled trials and suggest that treatment expectancies during titration can affect outcomes once full dosage has been reached.
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