6 ms·

Is 40% adverse reaction to a placebo typical? Really makes me wonder how many "side effects" are in our heads..

by rory 5y ago

programmarchy 5y ago
Couldn’t the adverse events in the placebo arm actually be caused by Covid?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- nradov 5y ago
  Probably. There was no uninfected control group.
rsynnott 5y ago
Given that this is a drug that's only given to people who _have covid_, I'd say it's incredibly difficult to disambiguate from covid symptoms.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  Covid and at least one comorbidity. 14% of the control group died; it’s no surprise that 40% had some sort of bad reaction, since presumably they were in pretty bad shape overall.
Pyramus 5y ago
Came here to say that it's not necessarily in our head - you can knowingly get a placebo and still react to it. As far as I know it's a combination of head, genetics and other unknown factors. In my opinion an underappreciated and understudied field.
Confiks 5y ago
Keep in mind that any negative effects, even those unlikely to be caused by the medication, need to be reported as adverse effects. It allows for making a clean comparison between the placebo, and also makes it possible to retroactively relate effects that have been overlooked previously. For example, you want 'patient was hit by a car' as possible side effect, because the medication could make people drowsy.
PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Please read the excellent popular science book "Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body" by author/journalist Jo Marchant. It gives an excellent overview of all things placebo related. ps. the answer to your question seems to be "quite a lot".
linuxftw 5y ago
That depends. In the case of vaccines, the placebo is often all the ingredients of a vaccines minus the biological component, or in other cases, an already approved vaccine is used as the placebo. So, it's probably a poorly controlled study, or garbage results, or both.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Is 40% adverse reaction to a placebo typical? Really makes me wonder how many "side effects" are in our heads..

by rory 5y ago

Is 40% adverse reaction to a placebo typical? Really makes me wonder how many "side effects" are in our heads..

programmarchy 5y ago

Couldn’t the adverse events in the placebo arm actually be caused by Covid?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nradov 5y ago
Probably. There was no uninfected control group.

rsynnott 5y ago

Given that this is a drug that's only given to people who _have covid_, I'd say it's incredibly difficult to disambiguate from covid symptoms.

ashtonkem 5y ago
Covid and at least one comorbidity. 14% of the control group died; it’s no surprise that 40% had some sort of bad reaction, since presumably they were in pretty bad shape overall.

Pyramus 5y ago

Came here to say that it's not necessarily in our head - you can knowingly get a placebo and still react to it. As far as I know it's a combination of head, genetics and other unknown factors. In my opinion an underappreciated and understudied field.

Confiks 5y ago

Keep in mind that any negative effects, even those unlikely to be caused by the medication, need to be reported as adverse effects. It allows for making a clean comparison between the placebo, and also makes it possible to retroactively relate effects that have been overlooked previously. For example, you want 'patient was hit by a car' as possible side effect, because the medication could make people drowsy.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

Please read the excellent popular science book "Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body" by author/journalist Jo Marchant. It gives an excellent overview of all things placebo related. ps. the answer to your question seems to be "quite a lot".

linuxftw 5y ago

That depends. In the case of vaccines, the placebo is often all the ingredients of a vaccines minus the biological component, or in other cases, an already approved vaccine is used as the placebo. So, it's probably a poorly controlled study, or garbage results, or both.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]