1462: Blind Trials - Revision history

Lp0 on fire: removed Category:Science using HotCat

2025-12-13T12:19:21Z

removed Category:Science using HotCat

B for brain: /* Transcript */

2025-06-02T18:31:33Z

‎Transcript

172.68.35.117 at 23:39, 16 February 2025

2025-02-16T23:39:03Z

ISaveXKCDpapers: corrected explanation (it has nothing to do with the sugar)

2024-06-10T05:49:29Z

corrected explanation (it has nothing to do with the sugar)

141.101.98.127: /* Explanation */ punc

2024-04-18T21:36:04Z

‎Explanation: punc

172.69.141.169: citation needed

2024-04-18T20:55:38Z

citation needed

172.70.127.125: Typo

2023-07-21T18:11:03Z

Typo

Natg19: /* Transcript */

2022-08-09T02:01:20Z

‎Transcript

Green: Undoing vandalism

2022-05-26T19:34:59Z

Undoing vandalism

Show changes

Donald Trump: Reverted edit by anti-crap user

2022-05-26T18:52:22Z

Reverted edit by anti-crap user

Show changes

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 [[Category:Sex]]
 [[Category:Psychology]]
 [[Category:Scientific research]]

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ==Transcript==
 :[Megan is pointing at charts hanging on the wall.]
-:Megan: We've designed a double-blind trial to test the effect of sexual activity on cardiovascular health.
+:Megan: We've designed a double-blind trial to test the effect of sexual activity on cardiovascular health. Both groups will ''think'' they're having lots of sex, but one group will actually be getting sugar pills.
-:The limitations of blind trials
+:Caption: The limitations of blind trials
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Challenges exist in designing placebo alternatives to certain physical treatments that might be tested, such as acupuncture; in this case the best quality trials have typically used either special 'joke' retractable needles that only give the illusion of proper penetration or the practitioner/researcher deliberately and safely avoids the traditional {{w|Meridian (Chinese medicine)|meridians}} on the body for the treatment concerned so that the patient remains 'blind' to their role in the trial. The practitioner must otherwise be consistent in treatment between groups and not be involved in the medical assessment phase for properly double-blinded conditions, where the most reliable results still seem to only show a significant placebo effect at work.
-There are, however, certain cases where it is almost impossible to make the experience of the control group identical to that of the test group. Making a real and fake pill appear the same is a relatively trivial task, and the ignorance of participants to the details of a given established practice or procedure can allow for a certain level of blinding. However, it would be challenging (to say the least) to make the control group in the described experiment think that they are having lots of sex,{{Citation needed}} when in fact they are not. The description of the control group as taking sugar pills is a laughably poor placebo substitute, as the sensations of ingesting a pill and of engaging in sexual activity are wildly different.
+There are, however, certain cases where it is almost impossible to make the experience of the control group identical to that of the test group. Making a real and fake pill appear the same is a relatively trivial task, and the ignorance of participants to the details of a given established practice or procedure can allow for a certain level of blinding. However, it would be challenging (to say the least) to make the control group in the described experiment think that they are having lots of sex,{{Citation needed}} when in fact they are not. The description of the control group as taking sugar pills is a laughably poor placebo substitute, as the sensations of ingesting a pill and of engaging in sexual activity are wildly different.{{Citation needed}}
 Scientific research involving humans is extremely challenging to conduct because of the difficulty in finding appropriate control groups. This is one of the reasons animal experiments (for instance involving inbred strains of mice) are so common.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Challenges exist in designing placebo alternatives to certain physical treatments that might be tested, such as acupuncture; in this case the best quality trials have typically used either special 'joke' retractable needles that only give the illusion of proper penetration or the practitioner/researcher deliberately and safely avoids the traditional {{w|Meridian (Chinese medicine)|meridians}} on the body for the treatment concerned so that the patient remains 'blind' to their role in the trial. The practitioner must otherwise be consistent in treatment between groups and not be involved in the medical assessment phase for properly double-blinded conditions, where the most reliable results still seem to only show a significant placebo effect at work.
-There are, however, certain cases where it is almost impossible to make the experience of the control group identical to that of the test group. Making a real and fake pill appear the same is a relatively trivial task, and the ignorance of participants to the details of a given established practice or procedure can allow for a certain level of blinding. However, it would be challenging (to say the least) to make the control group in the described experiment think that they are having lots of sex,{{Citation needed}} when in fact they are not. The description of the control group as taking sugar pills is a laughably poor placebo substitute, as the pills themselves may affect cardiovascular health, therefore ruining the concept of a {{w|controlled experiment}}, especially if it is a double-blind trial, and nobody knows who got sugar and who got sex.
+There are, however, certain cases where it is almost impossible to make the experience of the control group identical to that of the test group. Making a real and fake pill appear the same is a relatively trivial task, and the ignorance of participants to the details of a given established practice or procedure can allow for a certain level of blinding. However, it would be challenging (to say the least) to make the control group in the described experiment think that they are having lots of sex,{{Citation needed}} when in fact they are not. The description of the control group as taking sugar pills is a laughably poor placebo substitute, as the sensations of ingesting a pill and of engaging in sexual activity are wildly different.
 Scientific research involving humans is extremely challenging to conduct because of the difficulty in finding appropriate control groups. This is one of the reasons animal experiments (for instance involving inbred strains of mice) are so common.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Challenges exist in designing placebo alternatives to certain physical treatments that might be tested, such as acupuncture; in this case the best quality trials have typically used either special 'joke' retractable needles that only give the illusion of proper penetration or the practitioner/researcher deliberately and safely avoids the traditional {{w|Meridian (Chinese medicine)|meridians}} on the body for the treatment concerned so that the patient remains 'blind' to their role in the trial. The practitioner must otherwise be consistent in treatment between groups and not be involved in the medical assessment phase for properly double-blinded conditions, where the most reliable results still seem to only show a significant placebo effect at work.
-There are, however, certain cases where it is almost impossible to make the experience of the control group identical to that of the test group. Making a real and fake pill appear the same is a relatively trivial task, and the ignorance of participants to the details of a given established practice or procedure can allow for a certain level of blinding. However, it would be challenging (to say the least) to make the control group in the described experiment think that they are having lots of sex{{Citation needed}}, when in fact they are not. The description of the control group as taking sugar pills is a laughably poor placebo substitute, as the pills themselves may affect cardiovascular health, therefore ruining the concept of a {{w|controlled experiment}}, especially if it is a double-blind trial, and nobody knows who got sugar and who got sex.
+There are, however, certain cases where it is almost impossible to make the experience of the control group identical to that of the test group. Making a real and fake pill appear the same is a relatively trivial task, and the ignorance of participants to the details of a given established practice or procedure can allow for a certain level of blinding. However, it would be challenging (to say the least) to make the control group in the described experiment think that they are having lots of sex,{{Citation needed}} when in fact they are not. The description of the control group as taking sugar pills is a laughably poor placebo substitute, as the pills themselves may affect cardiovascular health, therefore ruining the concept of a {{w|controlled experiment}}, especially if it is a double-blind trial, and nobody knows who got sugar and who got sex.
 Scientific research involving humans is extremely challenging to conduct because of the difficulty in finding appropriate control groups. This is one of the reasons animal experiments (for instance involving inbred strains of mice) are so common.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 The title text adds another twist by taking “blind” literally, and noting that for some people, being blindfolded increases their enjoyment of sexual activity, thereby acting as a confounding variable.
-Despite this, it should be noted that Cardiovascular health is typically measured in terms of objective data such as cholesterol levels, ejection fraction, and morbidity/mortality data like the frequency of myocardial infractions, strokes, or sudden cardiac death. Even sighted, it would be difficult for either subjects or researchers to manipulate this kind of data.
+Despite this, it should be noted that Cardiovascular health is typically measured in terms of objective data such as cholesterol levels, ejection fraction, and morbidity/mortality data like the frequency of myocardial infarctions, strokes, or sudden cardiac death. Even sighted, it would be difficult for either subjects or researchers to manipulate this kind of data.
 ==Transcript==

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:01, 9 August 2022
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	[[Category:Science]]		[[Category:Science]]
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