tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post5220040905560593060..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: For Back Pain, Placebos Work Better than PainkillersJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-39919751007395478832016-10-23T18:56:33.258-04:002016-10-23T18:56:33.258-04:00Wait - what's going on here?
Firstly, why are...Wait - what's going on here?<br /><br />Firstly, why are they informing the patients that they're being given placebos? How do you have the placebo effect if the patient is aware the pill is worthless?<br /><br />Secondly, where is the experimental control? There needs to be a group that doesn't receive any actual pain medication at all.<br /><br />Thirdly, how are they measuring pain, and how are they equalizing data? Pain is a highly subjective sensation, and chronic back pain is a condition that covers a broad spectrum of intensities.<br /><br />And what's stopping the variance in reported pain levels from being the product of random circumstance? What if by sheer coincidence they assigned individuals with more severe back problems to the non-placebo group, and thus those individuals saw smaller comparative reductions? Or how about individuals with greater or lesser degrees of pain tolerance? What about individual sensitivity or resistance to the painkillers being used? What about daily living conditions and individual exertion? Many studies like these just send people home to return to their daily lives for the duration, which might expose them to wildly variable conditions which might improve or worsen their conditions. There are just so many variable unaccounted for here!G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com