A solution to caffeine withdrawal symptoms: decaf coffee

In some good news for coffee drinkers — a placebo discovery has shown decaf coffee quenches withdrawal symptoms in people reliant on their daily caffeine fix. Research conducted by the University of Sydney found that caffeine withdrawal symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, bad mood and irritability, shrank after participants drank decaf — whether they knew it was decaf or not.

Llew Mills, a Senior Research Associate at the School of Addiction Medicine led this research with School of Psychology co-authors Jessica Lee, Robert Boakes and Ben Colagiuri. The findings have been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The study focused on 61 heavy coffee drinkers (three or more cups a day) who went without caffeine for 24 hours and had their withdrawal measured. They were split into three groups — one group was told it was decaf, one was deceived into thinking it was regular coffee and the third, a control, was given water.

All participants were asked to rate their withdrawal symptoms after 45 minutes.

Mills said the group that was lied to reported a big drop in caffeine withdrawal.

“Because they expected their withdrawal to go down, it did go down,” Mills said. “In other words, a placebo effect. We’ve found this in several studies now.”

The group that knew they were drinking decaf also said their withdrawal symptoms were reduced. It was not as much as the group that was lied to, but still a significant amount.

This reaction is known as an open-label placebo effect, which occurs even when you know you are getting a placebo.

Participants were asked to rate how much they would expect various drinks to reduce their caffeine withdrawal. Unsurprisingly, they said they expected the greatest reduction from caffeinated coffee — but thought water would reduce withdrawal more than decaf.

“Withdrawal in the group we gave water to didn’t drop at all, whereas the people who were given decaf experienced a significant reduction,” Mills said. “The reduction they experienced was contrary to what they expected would happen when they were given water and decaf.”

He said the pleasing increase in alertness and energy people feel when drinking their daily coffee is just caffeine withdrawal being reversed. Years of associating the taste and smell of coffee with withdrawal reduction means decaf can cause a withdrawal affect without the caffeine and, as it turns out, without the expectation.

Though decaf doesn’t reduce withdrawal indefinitely, it could be an alternative for someone who is trying to cut back on caffeine and needs a temporary fix for the worst of the cravings.

“This study shows cognitive factors like what you expect and how much of a drug you think you have in your body have a big effect on how you experience withdrawal symptoms,” Mills said.

According to him, this study was conducted to model some of the processes involved in drug addiction — including the more serious and harmful drugs. This research could potentially lead to the development of treatments for addictions that integrate placebo effects.

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