3 ms·
It's science(and I can say this knowing the researchers). The trials were done rigorously and according to regulatory requirements. The results may be negativ
by caycep 11y ago
It's science(and I can say this knowing the researchers). The trials were done rigorously and according to regulatory requirements. The results may be negative, but they are valid results.
What it means for depression and DBS down the line remains to be seen. I agree w/ the poster below that a lot may depend on how you define depression; one critique may be that surgical candidates were not all suffering from the type of depression affecting the subcallosal cingulate area.
Of course the rationale for actually implanting the devices in the subcallosal cingulate were based on PET and fMRI results; and many in the imaging field regard those techniques as "junk science" but that is an argument with many barbs and perhaps better saved for another day...
- cpncrunch 11y ago>The results may be negative, but they are valid results. Except they were mostly (if not all) uncontrolled. Uncontrolled trials for depression are bad science, because the placebo effect has such a large effect. Even if an open-label trial for depression is successful, it tells you absolutely nothing.
- caycep 11y agoThe one cited in the link was controlled and blinded using sham stimulation in the group. The problem isn't that it wasn't controlled, it may not have been powered (n=30ish?) enough to reliably detect a difference...which is the main bugaboo in clinical science. Recruiting enough people into the study to make it meaningful is the hard and expensive part.