Jim,

I know a bit about hypnosis, given that what in part what my
dissertation was involved with. In terms of  pain control and
attention, there is something more than a placebo response. That has
been amply demonstrated in terms of pain control.

In terms of the so called healing touch, there has not, as far as I've
seen a double blind study that has shown anything beyond an
expectational set - in other words what the participants thought what
would occur and what the experimenters have occured. The only study
I've know that's looked at that showed that it was no more effective
than a control group. Moreover, there has been no real-simulator
designs attempted. Real simulator designs  use a group of participants
that are trained to fake a response. If a naive group of rater cannot
discrimate between those who are faking and the experimental group,
then any effects found are most likey due to non experimental effects,
like those trying to please the experimenter (good subject effects)
etc.

my own opinion is that the experimental data is so sloppy that any
real effect, if any (and probably not) is lost in the bull sh*t noise.

larry

On 7/16/05, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dana [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 12:29 PM
> > To: CF-Community
> > Subject: Re: Prayers do not influence recovery from heart
> > cathereterization
> >
> > what's clinically significant to you? Personally, 65% more likely to
> > be alive would look pretty good to me ...
> >
> > http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2
> > 005-07-15T172140Z_01_B232717_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-HEALING-TOUCH-DC.XML
> 
> I think in this case the meaning is that the effects are probably from side
> effects of the therapy (placebo effect, relaxation, etc) and not specific to
> the therapy itself.
> 
> Many "therapies" (therapeutic touch, hypnotism, massage, acupuncture,
> reflexology and many others) have similar effects when tested.  Do all of
> these (each with a completely different practitioner explanation of their
> effectiveness) do the same things in completely ways?  Or do each tap into
> some common source of benefit (such as the placebo effect)?
> 
> In any case I think that's what's meant by "statistically significant but
> not clinically significant".
> 
> Jim Davis
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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