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Old 02-08-2013, 10:52 AM
soccertese soccertese is offline
Magnate
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,531
15 yr Member
soccertese soccertese is offline
Magnate
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,531
15 yr Member
Default MY comments on "amateur clinical trials"

1. have to verify someone has pd? that they are honestly reporting data?
2. who's going to verify that the data is being stored and analyzed correctly? not saying someone is going to lie but mistakes happen.
3. you can't expect most people to wait when "Off", then take the drug, then wait for the affect, think about it. so how are you going to decide on dosage amounts, times, when to report?
4. most clinical trials require doctor approval, are you going to take responsibility for dire consequences?

you've got drug companies spending millions designing trials and analyzing the data using highly trained professionals. this isn't cancer or diabetes or treating high blood pressure where it's easy to take measurements, your're measuring small changes over time in a patient where their pd changes from minute to minute, that requires some knowledge of biology, statistics, science.

so lets say you try a ginseng trial, how many patients will you need and how much of a difference will you need in finger tapping over a control to say it has a significant affect at the 5% confidence level? do you have a normal population sample? can you verify someone took the ginseng? how long do you do the trial?

i always play devil's advocate, i suggest you just propose a trial, say take ginseng, get people to check blood pressure (is it safe) , etc., and then just have people keep a diary and report back in 6 weeks. if you can organize 10 people to do that, then build on that. if you can't, then figure out why, it's difficult enough to recruit pd'ers for regular trials.

i can finger tap differently every hour even when my sinemet is working well so i would think you need more measurements than that, i can also be in a terrible brain fog and finger tap well.
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