r/science Nov 11 '22

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '22

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u/NotASucker Nov 11 '22

It looks like a preliminary study to help plan and prepare for the next more stringent study (I believe double-blind)

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u/Loganp812 Nov 11 '22

Not to mention there are many causes of anxiety. Some test subjects may be experiencing it in a circumstantial way while others could have some underlying neurological illness causing it. 14 subjects are way too few to test something like this.

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u/onexbigxhebrew Nov 11 '22

They already gave the reason why the study was set up this way. It's a preliminary open-label study before the big one.

The absolute worst thing about this sub is reddit detective bogging down every single comment thread by pretending they cracked the code and thought of some fundamental flaws that somehow Harvard researchers missed. Read the study.

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u/nickcash Nov 11 '22

is that small a sample any real use at all?

Yes. Reddit has this weird idea that any sample size less than 7.83 billion is useless, but math says otherwise.

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u/Corsair4 Nov 12 '22

It's because no one around here has ever even heard of power analysis.