PMID- 23110189
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20130405
LR  - 20220309
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 7
IP  - 10
DP  - 2012
TI  - Catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met polymorphism predicts placebo effect in 
      irritable bowel syndrome.
PG  - e48135
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0048135 [doi]
LID - e48135
AB  - Identifying patients who are potential placebo responders has major implications 
      for clinical practice and trial design. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an 
      important enzyme in dopamine catabolism plays a key role in processes associated 
      with the placebo effect such as reward, pain, memory and learning. We 
      hypothesized that the COMT functional val158met polymorphism, was a predictor of 
      placebo effects and tested our hypothesis in a subset of 104 patients from a 
      previously reported randomized controlled trial in irritable bowel syndrome 
      (IBS). The three treatment arms from this study were: no-treatment ("waitlist"), 
      placebo treatment alone ("limited") and, placebo treatment "augmented" with a 
      supportive patient-health care provider interaction. The primary outcome measure 
      was change from baseline in IBS-Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) after three 
      weeks of treatment. In a regression model, the number of methionine alleles in 
      COMT val158met was linearly related to placebo response as measured by changes in 
      IBS-SSS (p = .035). The strongest placebo response occurred in met/met 
      homozygotes treated in the augmented placebo arm. A smaller met/met associated 
      effect was observed with limited placebo treatment and there was no effect in the 
      waitlist control. These data support our hypothesis that the COMT val158met 
      polymorphism is a potential biomarker of placebo response.
FAU - Hall, Kathryn T
AU  - Hall KT
AD  - Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical 
      Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of 
      America. kthall@bidmc.harvard.edu
FAU - Lembo, Anthony J
AU  - Lembo AJ
FAU - Kirsch, Irving
AU  - Kirsch I
FAU - Ziogas, Dimitrios C
AU  - Ziogas DC
FAU - Douaiher, Jeffrey
AU  - Douaiher J
FAU - Jensen, Karin B
AU  - Jensen KB
FAU - Conboy, Lisa A
AU  - Conboy LA
FAU - Kelley, John M
AU  - Kelley JM
FAU - Kokkotou, Efi
AU  - Kokkotou E
FAU - Kaptchuk, Ted J
AU  - Kaptchuk TJ
LA  - eng
GR  - 3R01AT004662-02S1/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01 AT004662/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States
GR  - K24 AT004095/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States
GR  - T32 AT000051/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R21 AT002860/AT/NCCIH NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
DEP - 20121023
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
RN  - 0 (Placebos)
RN  - EC 2.1.1.6 (Catechol O-Methyltransferase)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Amino Acid Substitution
MH  - Catechol O-Methyltransferase/*genetics
MH  - Female
MH  - Genotype
MH  - Humans
MH  - Irritable Bowel Syndrome/*genetics/pathology/*therapy
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Placebo Effect
MH  - Placebos
MH  - *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
MH  - Prognosis
MH  - Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
MH  - Regression Analysis
MH  - Severity of Illness Index
MH  - Treatment Outcome
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC3479140
COIS- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2012/10/31 06:00
MHDA- 2013/04/06 06:00
PMCR- 2012/10/23
CRDT- 2012/10/31 06:00
PHST- 2012/06/22 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2012/09/27 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2012/10/31 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/10/31 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2013/04/06 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2012/10/23 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-12-18110 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0048135 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e48135. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048135. Epub 2012 Oct 23.