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Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: May 6th, 2024

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  • Yeah, I understand that. But if there’s a measurable difference between the efficacy of the 2 pills that even the patient is obviously aware of, why does that warrant extreme caution versus another pill that doesn’t have this effect?

    Like why is it better to have a study in which the patient literally can’t tell the difference between treatments? Why is it not detrimental for a federal agency to unilaterally dismiss this?

    I understand that people online aren’t obligated to engage with me thoughtfully, but I was hoping for an actual explanation that is longer than 50 words from someone who is more knowledgeable than me regarding the validity of scientific experiments as they relate to pharmaceuticals.



  • So, let’s just use an example of a pill that treats headaches so I can understand, because I’m kinda stupid.

    It works super well, and most patients taking it in double blind trials find it relieves headache pain considerably. Why is it a bad thing, to the point of rejecting it as a treatment, that the patient feels that the pill is working very well and has concluded on their own that this is probably not a placebo?

    I can understand a patient being misled by coincidence, but surely a measurable, verifiable, and repeatable benefit to the patient compared to pills without medicinal ingredients would warrant a different conclusion, wouldn’t it?

    In your coma scenario, I’m sure there is a statistical analysis that can be performed to show with a degree of certainty that a specific medication has a higher likelihood of being effective than a placebo in a controlled experiment.

    I commented on this same story a while ago when it first broke that it was likely to be rejected and I don’t think anyone explained it in the thread.