Re: Placebo effects, EB, etc.
Great, thanks Martin= Sometime when I get to NYC, which I often do to visit
Columbia conn=ctions, I’d like to be in touch, and give Jeffery more lectures in=statistics — I think he has some
potential!
I wou=d like to put you in direct email contact.
great
I'm always interested in unique idea
Hello Jef=rey,
I'm gl=d that Martin has put us in touch for a couple of reasons. First, I =hink we have some mutual interests concerning the complications of doing e=periments with humans, rather than plants or animals or tires. One c=mplication is noncompliance with the assigned treatment, which we briefly =iscussed at the dinner, but the more interesting one is the placebo effect= which can be gigantic, for example in "viagra" type studi=s, which we didn't get around to discussing except indirectly in t=e context of the Emotional Brain (EB) female viagra issue.
More generally, this is rela=ed to FDA standards for approving drugs. A slight aside: in January=l'm one of three people getting honorary degrees from the Medical =acuity of the University of Uppsala in Sweden, where one of the others is =obert Califf, the current Commissioner of the FDA (the other is Marcia McN=tt, the current President of the National Academy of Sciences), so I shoul= get the chance to bend his ear at various meals (a former commissioner =E2401, under Bush II — was a partial PhD student of mine when he=was getting his MD at Harvard and his PhD in Econ at MIT, and remains a go=d friend: Mark McClellen, who is interested in this stuff and remains quit= influential in DC, I think).
But the reason for rambling about the FDA and placebo eff=cts is the following. This morning I just had an exchange of emails =ith the CEO of EB, whom I've known and worked with for about three=years, Adriaan Tuiten. He wrote that FDA has agreed with EB'= proposal for more trials, and the EB board of directors just approved the=issuance of about 12 million Euros in stock to pay for these trials. =Adriaan thinks that they may have enough connections now, but would you be=interested in participating? I already have some stock, which I earn=d though consulting. I think EB is interesting but still needs more=wisdom when it comes to their statistics (I've been to FDA with th=m two or three times, and I think they still need help with some of their =deas e.g., using SNPs). If interested in tossing some money their wa=, let me know.
In a=y case, I very much enjoyed our last conversations, and I look forward to =eeing you again, either in Cambridge or in NYC, which I'll probabl= get to in the next couple of weeks.
Best wishes, Don
three w=y skype for 3. and yes 1 face to face
Different ways to follow up.
The next time that we're in the sam= town, we could talk about the statistical ideas underlying ways to disent=ngle placebo effects from biological effects of drugs and why that*=99s important for FDA approvals and for prescripts in the docs office 4>=804› different answers, I think.
I can =end some recent things on the topic of placebo response, which are still n=t that wonderfully written.
If intereste= in exploring investing in EB, I can put you in touch with Adriaan, who Ikes in
Amsterdam.
Are any of these appealing?4>=A0 I prefer 1to 2. I think a face to face version of 3 could be arr=nged either here or there.
Let me know.
ar you around on the weekend in cambridg=.?
OK. I'll get back to you after I make contact with=Adriaan again, and my plans settle a bit.
Think so.=C2 Where will you be?
query, why are so many distributions in natur= so consistant and accurate. doesnt it give you pause. = like centrigal force. not a true force but one we sens=. many distributions could be describeds as pseudo forces pus=ing the tails toward the mean. . . could gravity be one of t=ese pseudo type forces pushing things towards a distribution.?? *=A0 not as silly a question as it first might appear to be . :)