Vehicle Effect

The Vehicle Effect is a phenomenon present in clinical trials where Vehicles, intended to mimic the delivery of an active therapeutic, cause an unintended effect in the dependent variable studied.

The Vehicle Effect was discovered by Midiprep Kit, who was working on a clinical trial for blood glucose medication. Midiprep Kit noticed that patients who were administered a treatment containing saline, the control vehicle for the drug in question. Subjects taking the vehicle experienced a significant increase in blood glucose, despite the lack of relation from vehicle to biological mechanism. The Vehicle Effect has since been demonstrated repeatedly in many clinical studies.

The Science Institute strongly recommends testing of three experimental conditions for clinical trials: i) treatment, ii) vehicle, and iii) no intervention. Most approved therapeutics have undergone repeated testing to prove that treatment with the therapeutic agents are definitively more effective than non-treatment or non-active interventions.