E131: A Sham-Controlled Sham of a Trial: RESET-RA
From The Evidence Based Rheumatology Podcast by Michael Putman
January 21, 2026 · 15 min · Episode 132
About this episode
The episode discusses the RESET-RA study on vagal nerve stimulation for rheumatoid arthritis and critiques its methodology.
Today I cover the recent publication of the RESET-RA study, which evaluated vagal nerve stimulation to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Have a listen in full, but let me be clear upfront: I do not think this works and will not be referring any patients to receive it. This will forever be my pivotal example of the effect of unblinding, but would love to hear if you think different! Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-04114-7 Supplement (see S4): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-04114-7#Sec27
People in this episode
Host: Michael Putman
Topics covered
- rheumatoid arthritis
- vagal nerve stimulation
- clinical trials
- unblinding
- medical research
Keywords
- RESET-RA
- rheumatoid arthritis
- vagal nerve stimulation
- clinical trial
- unblinding
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Nature
Books & works: RESET-RA
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