La respuesta placebo en el consumo de cocaína: una revisión sistemática

The study of the placebo response in the modulation of the effects of drugs of abuse is receiving increasing interest. The aim of the present systematic review is to examine the placebo response in cocaine use. For this purpose, we conducted a literature search in the Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases, which has been complemented with a manual search, finally including a total of 15 papers between both searches. The results indicate higher responses after cocaine administration than after placebo; moreover, it has been found that exposure to cocaine-related stimuli generates an expectancy in people with a history of cocaine use, which plays a crucial role in both objective and subjective induced responses (mainly increased heart rate and blood pressure and increased craving), which are not as pronounced in subjects without a history of cocaine use. These results suggest that this phenomenon is mediated by a conditioning history of the consuming participants that determines the response to the drug even before ingestion. Knowledge of the functioning of the placebo response in drug use allows the identification of markers of the disease state, thus allowing the implementation better intervention strategies