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A comment on Telling the Bees. Parent comment

Re:Telling the Bees by austinjp on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @07:31PM (#28688676)
Hmmm nit picking but I think regression to the mean is different from placebo.

Regression to the mean: most headaches go away within a few hours.

Placebo: your favourite brand of paracetamol seems to cure headaches quicker than the unbranded version.

They can interact, of course.

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Re:Telling the Bees by tsimionescu on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @02:50AM (#28690936)
Placebo refers to any effect where a patient's outcomes seem to improve for reasons not related to the specific intervention attempted. Regression to the mean, incorrect data collection, psycho-somatic effects etc are all elements of placebo, in various degrees in various instances.
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Re:Telling the Bees by austinjp on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:44AM (#28692444)
Well, fair enough. To split hairs ever finer, though...

Placebo is present in all circumstances, as is nocebo.

Regression to the mean is a statistical phenomenon. It can help aid understanding of the size and role of placebo effects, but it isn't a part of the placebo effect. Ditto data collection and analysis.

But yeah, I'm probably splitting hairs :)

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