M. Carmen Meerschaert writes:
>My question is this: Are we right to assume that a placebo-treated group
>is a true "control" population when studying a disease which is subject
>to psycho-somatic exacerbations? If this patient population's response
>to placebo is high, might this not be an unfair standard against which
>the treatment modality is measured?
I'm not a doctor, so my comments might be a bit naive. If a treatment is
shown to be equivalent to placebo, then I would have a hard time
understanding how a doctor or other medical specialist could justify its
use. Almost every treatment has side effects and all treatments have some
expense (time if nothing else).
Those of you who know more about medicine than I do could perhaps provide
some examples of when a treatment that is no better placebo is justified
from the perspective of the patient. When is it justified from the
perspective of the insurer?
Steve Simon, [log in to unmask], Standard Disclaimer.
STATS - Steve's Attempt to Teach Statistics: http://www.cmh.edu/stats
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