OA Trial Bank
The OA Trial Bank initiates meta-analyses of the effect of treatment on predefined subgroups of osteoarthritis (OA) patients from existing studies, using Individual Patient Data (IPD). Based on the small to moderate effects of the wide range of symptomatic treatments in OA, and the heterogeneity of OA patients, treatment guidelines for OA have stressed the need for research on clinical predictors of response to different treatments.
Current Projects Involved In
Identifying placebo responders and predictors of response in osteoarthritis
In many studies of osteoarthritis treatment, there is an improvement in pain relief when a dummy ‘placebo’ treatment is compared to no treatment at all, but there is very little extra improvement when the real treatment is compared to placebo. This response to placebo varies greatly from patient to patient. Identifying the characteristics of a person who will best respond to placebo treatment, along with the factors that will predict a beneficial placebo response, will help maximise treatment effect and design future pain relief studies.
I presented the preliminary results from this study at the 2019 Osteoarthritis World Congress (OARSI) in Toronto. Our abstract of this IPD study was also selected for the OARSI 2019 abstract award in the category “Therapy”.