Petkova Eva, Tarpey Thaddeus, Govindarajulu Usha
New York University, USA.
Int J Biostat. 2009 Jul 6;5(1):Article 23. doi: 10.2202/1557-4679.1152.
Non-specific responses to treatment (commonly known as placebo response) are pervasive when treating mental illness. Subjects treated with an active drug may respond in part due to non-specific aspects of the treatment, i.e, those not related to the chemical effect of the drug. To determine the extent a subject responds due to the chemical effect of a drug, one must disentangle the specific drug effect from the non-specific placebo effect. This paper presents a unique statistical model that allows for the separate prediction of a specific effect and non-specific effects in drug treated subjects. Data from a clinical trial comparing fluoxetine to a placebo for treating depression is used to illustrate this methodology.
在治疗精神疾病时,对治疗的非特异性反应(通常称为安慰剂反应)普遍存在。接受活性药物治疗的受试者可能部分由于治疗的非特异性方面而产生反应,即那些与药物化学作用无关的方面。为了确定受试者因药物化学作用而产生反应的程度,必须将特定药物效应与非特异性安慰剂效应区分开来。本文提出了一种独特的统计模型,该模型允许对接受药物治疗的受试者的特定效应和非特异性效应进行单独预测。使用一项比较氟西汀与安慰剂治疗抑郁症的临床试验数据来说明这种方法。