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Two patients and no control group is virtually useless for drawing any conclusions: > Indeed, researchers recently reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry that fe
by PragmaticPulp 5y ago
Two patients and no control group is virtually useless for drawing any conclusions:
> Indeed, researchers recently reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry that fecal transplants improved symptoms in two depressed patients.
Depression research is challenging because even placebo groups tend to have dramatic improvements.
- robocat 5y ago> Two patients and no control group is virtually useless for drawing any conclusions That is a frequentist argument. If the response to treatment is significant enough, then that is a worthwhile signal (cliché: parachutes save lives without a control group). Placebo is an obvious contender. However presuming the patients had a chronic condition with plenty of previous interventions, then the placebo effect has had plenty of chances in the past. If it were due to placebo then there would be something to learn about why the placebo effect were so effective in that situation!