Re: magnet therapy test protocols

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 09:09 AM 1/11/00 -0500, Michael Edmiston wrote:
> I don't see how we can stop the test subjects from trying to pick up
> paper clips with their "magnets" to see if they are in the treated
> group or the placebo group.

I think a clever experimentalist could address this problem with reasonable
probability of success.  First steps might include
 -- attaching the devices to the patient with tamper-evident closures
 -- shielding one group of devices so that the field was much larger in
the tissue-facing direction than in the non-tissue-facing directions.
 -- augmenting the shielding with plain old distance via padding.
 -- conversely, shielding another group of devices so that the field was
much larger in the non-tissue-facing directions than the tissue-facing
directions.
 -- providing some patients with controlled access to some strongly
ferromagnetic paper clips that will stick to the treatment-devices even if
the latter have no field of their own.
 -- plotting the dose-response curve a couple of different ways to see if
response correlated with the tissue-facing or non-tissue-facing (i.e.
paper-clip facing) directions.

> If we can't stop the test subjects from
> doing that, how can we conduct valid double-blind studies?

I completely agree that proper blinding is essential.