Trial reportPsychopharmacology2018
Assessment of pioglitazone and proinflammatory cytokines during buprenorphine taper in patients with opioid use disorder.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01517165 (Pioglitazone as an Aid During Buprenorphine Taper), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 papers.
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.
Pioglitazone as an Aid During Buprenorphine Taper
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- PPARγ activation by pioglitazone does not suppress cravings for alcohol, and is associated with a risk of myopathy in treatment seeking alcohol dependent patients: a randomized controlled proof of principle study.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- The actions of morphine on microglia and the underlying effects on associated adverse effects.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Cannabinoid-based Pharmacology for the Management of Substance Use Disorders.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
- β-caryophyllene inhibits heroin self-administration, but does not alter opioid-induced antinociception in rodents.Neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- Promising immunomodulators for management of substance and alcohol use disorders.Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy · 2024Review
- Cytokines in hepatitis C-infected patients with or without opioid maintenance therapy.Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2024Article
- Cannabidiol and substance use disorder: Dream or reality.Neuropharmacology · 2022Review
- Nuclear peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) as a therapeutic target to treat neurodegeneration and dependence elicited by drugs of abuse.Neural regeneration research · 2021Article
- Improving translation of animal models of addiction and relapse by reverse translation.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2020Review
- Review
- Activation of PPARγ Attenuates the Expression of Physical and Affective Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms through Mechanisms Involving Amygdala and Hippocampus Neurotransmission.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Article
- Exploration and Development of PPAR Modulators in Health and Disease: An Update of Clinical Evidence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Neuroimmune signaling in alcohol use disorder.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2019Review
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 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPreliminary evidence suggested that the PPARγ agonist pioglitazone reduces opioid-withdrawal symptoms, possibly by inhibiting increases in proinflammatory cytokines.
methodsA randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted utilizing two different study designs (entirely outpatient, and a combination of inpatient and outpatient) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pioglitazone as an adjunct medication for people with opioid physical dependence undergoing a buprenorphine taper. Participants were stabilized on buprenorphine/naloxone (sublingual, up to 16/4 mg/day), then randomized to receive oral pioglitazone (up to 45 mg/day) or placebo before, during, and after buprenorphine taper. Outcome measures included the Subjective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS) and Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale, use of rescue medications to alleviate opioid withdrawal symptoms, and opioid-positive urine specimens. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma were collected during the taper in a subset of participants for measurement of proinflammatory cytokines.
resultsThe clinical trial was prematurely terminated due to slow enrollment; 40 participants per group were required for adequate statistical power to test study hypotheses. Twenty-four participants enrolled; 17 received at least one dose of study medication (6 pioglitazone, 11 placebo). SOWS scores were higher in the pioglitazone arm than in the placebo arm after adjusting for use of rescue medications; participants in the pioglitazone arm needed more rescue medications than the placebo arm during the post-taper phase. SOWS scores were positively correlated with monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in CSF (r = 0.70, p = 0.038) and plasma (r = 0.77, p = 0.015). Participants having higher levels of plasma MCP-1 reported higher SOWS, most notably after the buprenorphine taper ended.
conclusionsResults from this study provide no evidence that pioglitazone reduces opioid withdrawal symptoms during buprenorphine taper. High correlations between MCP-1 and opioid withdrawal symptoms support a role of proinflammatory processes in opioid withdrawal.
trial registrationclinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01517165.
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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.