GHRL and Cachexia: of ghrelin to humans with cachexia has shown no univocal efficacy in increasing food intake with single dose intravenous administration.[25, 26] In a study carried out by Strasser et al.,[25] 21 adult patients were randomized to receive ghrelin on days 1 and 8 and placebo on days 4 and 11 or vice versa, given intravenously over a 60-min period before lunch: 10 received 2 mg kg/1 (lower dose) ghrelin and 11 received 8 mg kg/1 (upper-dose) ghrelin.