Opinion

... in response to Placebos work
  1. post hoc, ergo propter hoc
    David E. Connolly, Jr. David E. Connolly, Jr. United States says:
    September 7, 2011 at 7:01 PM

    The conclusion drawn from this study defies rationality; the patients may have suspected that they were being lied to and that they were, in fact, taking real medication.  Whether the patients were conscious of their suspicions is another matter.  Another suspicious aspect to the conclusion drawn is that the performance of the medical ritual of receiving placebos caused the effect; not so: more likely, the patients suspected that in spite of the possibility that they were not receiving real medicine, that they were still being looked after by real doctors, and that this attention from a doctor might have benefits in and of itself.  In my opinion, the conclusions did not take into consideration many other perhaps more viable explanations for the patient's subjective reporting.  

    Reply
    • Causation is not correlation
      Austin Austin United States says:
      November 16, 2011 at 2:10 AM

      Three weeks, 80 patients...  That is 40 patients per group. That means nearly 40% of patients with no treatment received positive results? The correlation of only 60% of the experimental group receiving positive results is not causation, and creates a very weak inductive argument. I would like to, as the gentleman above described, that post hoc/ergo propter hoc fallacies, also known as false cause, can easily be hypothesized here. More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of all types of notification of placebo reception.

      Reply
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