Do you know why they have control groups in drug trials? Because sometimes just doing something is therapy in and of its self. Sometimes patients improve just because they think they’re going to improve. It isn’t because they’re wacky. They’re just humans trying to survive. If this was something rare or unusual, control groups wouldn’t be necessary. But they are because we need to know if the patients on the drug really do better than the ones that just think they might be on the drug.
The Pirfenidone trial I’m in is a double-blind study, meaning that I don’t know if I’m getting “the real stuff” nor do my doctors know. It’s all done by random numbers. No playing favorites. No emotion. Just the facts.
When I was first admitted, I did really wonder if I was getting the real stuff. I tried not to, but hey, I’m human. I couldn’t help it. I remember looking at the pills one day and wondering if the term “sugar pill” was a literal term? Could there really be sugar in those capsules?
Another friend of mine in the trial and I shared patient numbers – she told me hers and I told her mine. We knew not only our patient number, but which “number” we were as we were admitted to the trial – first, second or 10th. I sat around one day trying to figure out if there was a pattern, given that I know that 2/3 of the patients are getting the drug and 1/3 are not.
I can’t help it. Maybe it’s the reporter in me.
But the one thing the trial gave me back, placebo or drug, was hope. I was doing something, as opposed to nothing. I decided that even if I could come up with a way to find out, at this point, I’d rather not know. Why ruin one of the perks of being in the study – the idea that I’m doing something?
Even if I’m on the placebo, as far as I’m concerned, it’s been beneficial – if nothing else than for my mental health. We have to have a control group. Someone has to be on blanks. It could be me just as easily as anyone else. Without the control group, none of us will eventually have a treatment. It’s a step that must be taken to someday find the cure – it’s moving forward.
When the double blind is eventually broken, I have the option of finding out whether I’ve been on a placebo all this time. I haven’t yet decided if I want to know then. I’ve tabled the decision until then. For now, I’m just popping my pills.
The Pirfenidone trial I’m in is a double-blind study, meaning that I don’t know if I’m getting “the real stuff” nor do my doctors know. It’s all done by random numbers. No playing favorites. No emotion. Just the facts.
When I was first admitted, I did really wonder if I was getting the real stuff. I tried not to, but hey, I’m human. I couldn’t help it. I remember looking at the pills one day and wondering if the term “sugar pill” was a literal term? Could there really be sugar in those capsules?
Another friend of mine in the trial and I shared patient numbers – she told me hers and I told her mine. We knew not only our patient number, but which “number” we were as we were admitted to the trial – first, second or 10th. I sat around one day trying to figure out if there was a pattern, given that I know that 2/3 of the patients are getting the drug and 1/3 are not.
I can’t help it. Maybe it’s the reporter in me.
But the one thing the trial gave me back, placebo or drug, was hope. I was doing something, as opposed to nothing. I decided that even if I could come up with a way to find out, at this point, I’d rather not know. Why ruin one of the perks of being in the study – the idea that I’m doing something?
Even if I’m on the placebo, as far as I’m concerned, it’s been beneficial – if nothing else than for my mental health. We have to have a control group. Someone has to be on blanks. It could be me just as easily as anyone else. Without the control group, none of us will eventually have a treatment. It’s a step that must be taken to someday find the cure – it’s moving forward.
When the double blind is eventually broken, I have the option of finding out whether I’ve been on a placebo all this time. I haven’t yet decided if I want to know then. I’ve tabled the decision until then. For now, I’m just popping my pills.
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