Method and System for Addressing the Placebo Effect to Ameliorate its Practical Effect on Drug Testing

摘要

A system and method for providing improved therapeutic treatments and improved clinical trials for therapeutic treatments involves the predicting of a placebo response or effect by appreciation of the condition of and variances to the microbiome of individuals involved in drug efficacy studies. The provision of purportedly neutral placebos, such a “sugar pill”, has an effect on the microbes in a person's body, and therefore often has an effect on the person's wellbeing and perception of treatment. An appreciation that there is an actual effect due to the modification of the microbiome, caused by the administration of the placebo, forms a basis for various methods and systems of the present invention, with such appreciation being employed to design and conduct better drug efficacy studies without the prior problems experienced due to the placebo effect.