Expectations in clinical trials were investigated in 2005 resulting in a good paper by Fabrizio Benedetti et al. Altho a few years old, it talks about expectation pathways in our minds, that could be working in a way similar to the actual treatment. He also comments about "hidden treatments", where the person doesn't know he/she received a treatment, not working as well as when the person knows he is getting it. Here are two references about this.
Ray Bartus has not responded to emails asking for more information about ceregene, so based on his first comments to Perry Cohen about "lowering trial participant expectations to reduce placebo noise", I thought these may be interesting:
http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=news_111505c
[from ppp email - planton]: actual Benedetti study
http://dcscience.net/placebo.pdf
excerpt:
Another important point is represented by the role of expectations and subsequent
neurobiological changes in clinical trial design. In a recent double-blind study that
addressed the perceived assignment of treatment in human fetal mesencephalic
transplantation for Parkinson’s disease, it was found that the perceived assignment
of treatment (either active or placebo) had a more powerful impact on both quality of
life and motor function than did the actual treatment. In other words, which group
participants believed they belonged to was more important than the group to which
they were actually assigned (active treatment or placebo). This study raises a crucial
question about how a clinical trial should be conceived: should we consider the perceived assignment to an arm of the trial rather than the actual assignment?
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This leaves patient consumers wide open to be told just about anything before a trial begins. This deserves an ethical discussion and if it is being considered for cere 120 phase III, patient advocates should be involved. Isn't our brain saying that it basically believes what it is told? Human nature......it's abnormal to use trickery and when does trickery become quackery?
When this trickery involves brain surgery, it may be going too far. The refinement of pump infusion seems logical, safer , controllable and reversable.
paula