Harnessing Placebo Effects in Methadone Treatment

Completed · Not applicable · Has a placebo group

Conditions studied: Opioid-use Disorder, Opioid-Related Disorders

In brief

More than 2 million individuals in the United States have an Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Methadone maintenance treatment is the gold standard of medication-assisted treatment for OUD, but high-dose methadone is associated with cardiotoxicity and respiratory complications, among other side effects. These adverse effects make enhancing the effectiveness of lower doses of methadone an attractive therapeutic goal. Long recognized for its capacity to enhance treatment outcomes for a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders including pain, the placebo effect offers an as-yet untested avenue to such an enhancement. This approach is particularly compelling given that individuals with substance use disorder tend to have higher salience attribution, and may thereby be more sensitive to placebo effects. Our study combines two promising clinical methodologies-open-label placebo and conditioning-to investigate whether placebo effects can increase the effective potency of methadone in treatment-seeking OUD patients.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT02941809
Run by
University of Maryland, Baltimore
People needed
133
Starts
2017-12-05
Expected to finish
2020-07-31
Last updated by the study team
2020-08-11

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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