Statistics - help!

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

The other day I asked for help with statistics re a Homoeopathic experiment

Only one person from this list replied.

Beth and Luise - How good is your statistics?

Regards

Soroush

[Luise Kunkle]

Hi Soroush,
Minimal - please read my other post.

Regards

Luise
--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
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[Sarvadaman Oberoi]

The other day I asked for help with statistics re a Homoeopathic experiment
Dear Soroush,
For Small Sample, n<30, when Population Standard Deviation is not known.
Use of Student's t-distribution (W.S. Gosset, 1908 & Fisher-Gosset) is very useful in many applications when there are severe limitations upon the size of the samples obtained and parent population is normally distributed. One may be constrained to deal with a small sample either due to non-availability of funds or time. This is generally the case in the fields of medicine, education, and psychology where experiments involve observing people.
1. A sample size of 20 to 30 may be selected at random from the parent population for each trial. Similar trials to be repeated 25 to 30 times over a period of 7 days each.
2. Record all the health problems of each person. 15 to 20 of them would have some treatable condition which is not life threatening. Reject all those without any health problems and those with life threatening conditions (for ethical reasons). Select remaining persons - if less than 10 remain, scrap this trial for reason of sample too small.
3. Treat the health condition whatsoever it may be - for 7 days and record the difference/ improvement in 7 days. Trained homeopaths should prescribe remedies as per homeopathic protocols, duration, frequency, potency etc. The remedies should be provided in fresh labelled bottles. In half the trials placebo and in other half of the trials actual remedies should be provided, using double blind method.
4. Compare the improvement/ cure level with what would be expected with conventional treatment as also with no treatment. Prepare the results and then compare the difference between the effects of trials with actual remedies and trials with placebo.
Two word files basically from wikipedia being sent separately to you.
Regards.

Sarvadaman Oberoi
Tower 1 Flat 1102, The Uniworld Garden,
Sohna Road, Gurgaon 122018 Haryana INDIA
Mobile: +919818768349 Tele: +911244227522
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/homeopathy249/
email: manioberoi@gmail.com

[Shannon Nelson]

On Jan 9, 2008, at 7:54 AM, Sarvadaman Oberoi wrote:
But some chronic conditions would not be expected to show definitive
result that quickly! So selection should also take that into account;
which is difficult, because rate of response can be so variable...
Shannon

[Sarvadaman Oberoi]

Dear Shannon,
For quicker acting therapies used for longer term health problems the N of 1 RCTs are also considered suitable. This would lower the costs and make recording easier. Of course getting longer term health problems to improve in 7 to 30 days is challenging, not impossible.

"N of 1 RCTs
http://www.cche.net/usersguides/main.asp
The same strategies that minimize bias in conventional trials of therapy involving multiple patients can guard against misleading results in studies involving single patients. [23] In the "N of 1" randomized control trial (RCT), patients undertake pairs of treatment periods in which they receive a target treatment in one period of each pair, and a placebo or alternative in the other. Patients and clinicians are blind to allocation, the order of the target and control are randomized, and patients make quantitative ratings of their symptoms during each period. The N of 1 RCT continues until both the patient and clinician conclude that the patient is, or is not, obtaining benefit from the target intervention. N of 1 RCTs are unsuitable for short-term problems; for therapies that cure (such as surgical procedures); for therapies that act over long periods of time or prevent rare or unique events (such as stroke, myocardial infarction, or death); and are possible only when patients and clinicians have the interest and time required. However, when the conditions are right, N of 1 randomized trials are feasible [24] [25], can provide definitive evidence of treatment effectiveness in individual patients, and may lead to long-term differences in treatment administration. [26]"
Regards.

Sarvadaman Oberoi
Tower 1 Flat 1102, The Uniworld Garden,
Sohna Road, Gurgaon 122018 Haryana INDIA
Mobile: +919818768349 Tele: +911244227522
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/homeopathy249/
email: manioberoi@gmail.com

[Shannon Nelson]

Thanks, Sarvadaman,
That rules out high potency single-dose homeopathy, but other than
that, sounds like a good idea.
use a very conservative dosing method, e.g. *not* dosing on a schedule,
but instead doing test doses to see how long the action lasts.
Shannon