Post by Admin on Dec 25, 2023 11:17:40 GMT
Are Subjective Beliefs the Missing Link in Treatment Effectiveness Studies?
Luisa Fassi's team reveals how patient subjective beliefs significantly sway the effectiveness of neurofeedback, brain training, and pharmacotherapy.
www.madinamerica.com/2023/12/are-subjective-beliefs-the-missing-link-in-treatment-effectiveness-studies/
In the world of medical science, the efficacy of treatments like neurostimulation, neurofeedback, brain training, and pharmacotherapy is often measured by comparing the outcomes of active treatments against placebos. However, the new and innovative work of Luisa Fassi and her colleagues introduces a critical variable often neglected in such studies: the patient’s subjective beliefs and experiences.
Their analysis of four independent datasets involving 387 participants, including both clinical patients and healthy adults, reveals that an individual’s subjective beliefs about receiving active or placebo treatment can significantly influence the outcome of the treatment, often more so than the treatment itself.
“We demonstrate that individual differences in subjective treatment—the belief of receiving the active or placebo condition during an experiment—can explain variability in research outcomes better than objective treatment, the actual treatment to which participants are assigned,” the authors write.
“We advocate for existing and future studies in clinical and non-clinical research to start accounting for participants’ subjective beliefs and their interplay with objective treatment when assessing the efficacy of treatments. This approach will be crucial in providing a more accurate estimation of the treatment effect and its source, allowing the development of effective and reproducible interventions.”
This revelation by Fassi’s team, grounded in research across various age groups and conditions, challenges the traditional approach to evaluating treatment efficacy. It underscores the need for a paradigm shift in how clinical and non-clinical research is conducted and interpreted. By integrating participants’ subjective beliefs with objective treatment conditions, this study offers a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of treatment efficacy, potentially revolutionizing the design and assessment of future interventions in neuroscience and psychiatry.
Luisa Fassi's team reveals how patient subjective beliefs significantly sway the effectiveness of neurofeedback, brain training, and pharmacotherapy.
www.madinamerica.com/2023/12/are-subjective-beliefs-the-missing-link-in-treatment-effectiveness-studies/
In the world of medical science, the efficacy of treatments like neurostimulation, neurofeedback, brain training, and pharmacotherapy is often measured by comparing the outcomes of active treatments against placebos. However, the new and innovative work of Luisa Fassi and her colleagues introduces a critical variable often neglected in such studies: the patient’s subjective beliefs and experiences.
Their analysis of four independent datasets involving 387 participants, including both clinical patients and healthy adults, reveals that an individual’s subjective beliefs about receiving active or placebo treatment can significantly influence the outcome of the treatment, often more so than the treatment itself.
“We demonstrate that individual differences in subjective treatment—the belief of receiving the active or placebo condition during an experiment—can explain variability in research outcomes better than objective treatment, the actual treatment to which participants are assigned,” the authors write.
“We advocate for existing and future studies in clinical and non-clinical research to start accounting for participants’ subjective beliefs and their interplay with objective treatment when assessing the efficacy of treatments. This approach will be crucial in providing a more accurate estimation of the treatment effect and its source, allowing the development of effective and reproducible interventions.”
This revelation by Fassi’s team, grounded in research across various age groups and conditions, challenges the traditional approach to evaluating treatment efficacy. It underscores the need for a paradigm shift in how clinical and non-clinical research is conducted and interpreted. By integrating participants’ subjective beliefs with objective treatment conditions, this study offers a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of treatment efficacy, potentially revolutionizing the design and assessment of future interventions in neuroscience and psychiatry.