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Conditioning, the Placebo Effect, and Psoriasis
This study is currently recruiting patients.
Sponsored by: | National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) |
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Information provided by: | National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) |
Purpose
This study uses the psychological principle known as classical conditioning to try to improve the standard treatment of psoriasis. Classical conditioning is a process of behavioral modification in which a person learns to connect a certain response-in this case, improvement of psoriasis-with a new action, or stimulus-in this case, application of an inactive cream. The goal of this study is to show that people with psoriasis who are maintained on corticosteroid cream part of the time and an inactive (placebo) cream at other times will need a lower total amount of active medication over time than will people who are treated only with the active drug.
Condition | Treatment or Intervention | Phase |
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Psoriasis |
Behavior: Conditioning Drug: Corticosteroid cream |
Phase I |
MedlinePlus related topics: Psoriasis
Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Control
Official Title: Role of Conditioning in the Pharmacotherapy of Psoriasis
Expected Total Enrollment: 60
Study start: August 2000;
Study completion: July 2005
The lack of scientific attention devoted to the placebo effect as a phenomenon in its own right probably reflects the paucity of theoretical positions within which to organize the existing data and design new research. This research addresses the clinical significance of behavior-immune system interactions.
This study will capitalize on conditioned immunosuppressive responses to reduce the cumulative amount of corticosteroid medication used in the treatment of psoriasis. We will continue to treat patients with steroid, but will shift experimental patients from their current schedule of continuous reinforcement (active drug whenever medication is applied) to a partial schedule of reinforcement (active drug a percentage of the time and placebo alone at other times). To equate amount of medication, we will treat another group of patients with a reduced dose of steroid in a standard treatment regimen (continuous schedule of reinforcement).
We hypothesize that, holding cumulative dose constant, a partial schedule of reinforcement will enable patients to be maintained on lower cumulative amounts of corticosteroid than patients treated under a continuous schedule of active drug. This is the first attempt to adopt conditioning principles and use schedules of reinforcement to design regimens of drug therapy. If proven effective, this new approach to pharmacotherapy and placebo effects is likely to stimulate new interdisciplinary research in neuropharmacology and behavioral pharmacology for the treatment of autoimmune disorders and a variety of other chronic diseases.
Eligibility
Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years and above, Genders Eligible for Study: Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
Location and Contact Information
More Information
Publications
Ader R. "The role of conditioning in pharmacotherapy." In The placebo effect: An interdisciplinary exploration, edited by A. Harrington, 138-165. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
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