There is perhaps no more important time in the history of placebos to consider their role in clinical trials and in medicine. Increasingly well-designed pharmaceutical and academic clinical trials testing promising and established drug and surgical interventions have failed to “beat” the placebo response. The collateral damage resulting from these failures is staggering; novel treatments, many with compelling mechanisms of action and promising Phase 2 trial results, never reach the patient, adversely affecting small and large pharma alike. Recent evidence suggests that variability in placebo response may be attributed in part to genetic variation. Thus, having a better understanding of the genomic underpinnings of the placebo response, the “placebome”, may pave the way to innovatively and more effectively use placebos in drug development.

中文翻译：

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药物基因组学与安慰剂反应

在安慰剂的历史上，也许没有比现在更重要的时刻来考虑它们在临床试验和医学中的作用了。越来越多设计良好的药物和学术临床试验对有前途的，已确立的药物和手术干预进行了测试，未能“击败”安慰剂反应。这些故障造成的附带损害是惊人的；新颖的疗法，其中许多具有令人信服的作用机制，并具有令人鼓舞的2期试验结果，从未达到患者的治疗水平，对大型和大型制药公司均产生不利影响。最近的证据表明，安慰剂反应的差异可能部分归因于遗传变异。因此，对安慰剂反应的基因组基础有一个更好的了解，“安慰剂”可以为在药物开发中创新和更有效地使用安慰剂铺平道路。