Posted by seldomseen on August 13, 2008, at 17:59:47
In reply to Placebo in Psychiatric Clinical Trials, posted by SLS on August 13, 2008, at 7:40:34
I think it could mean a lot of things actually.
It could also mean that 30% of the people in the study would improve without treatment.
It could mean that the study outcome measure is flawed in some way. Usually depression is measured using some kind of metric - like a questionnaire or something. A rather subjective endpoint in my opinion.
It could also mean that the study isn't being implemented in a correct manner, a variable that isn't being appropriately controlled for, blindness breached or something like that.
While the power of suggestion is usually the thing most people suggest, I suspect the "truth" is something far more mundane.
Of course, they could be using Sucrosa ;)
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39082Seldom
poster:seldomseen
thread:845869
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080805/msgs/845997.html