As to the subjective evaluations, more patients in the sodium hyaluronate group compared with the placebo group were considered "slightly improved", "improved", or "excellent improved" by both patient's and investigator's judgment of effectiveness at Week 25.
Nominally more patients in the sodium hyaluronate group compared with the placebo group were considered "slightly improved", "improved", or "excellent improved" by both patient's judgment of effectiveness at Week 25 (58 versus 45 patients, respectively) and investigator's judgment (60 versus 47 patients, respectively).
Here one comes to a crucial distinction between education and medicine: in education, a priori beliefs about the way children ought to learn or about the relative value of different kinds of knowledge seem to have tremendous force in shaping judgments about effectiveness.
The critical results are the mean judgments of effectiveness for each condition.
Clinicians' and family members' feelings and perceptions about a treatment may influence their judgments about its effectiveness The effect of placebo on the patient and the patient's environment is often debated, but people other than the patient may also feel better when a patient receives placebo treatment.
Withholding judgment on the effectiveness and the authenticity of the treatment would probably be a good idea, for a whole lot of reasons.
"At this time, we can make no judgment about the effectiveness of most psychotherapies or about any medications in helping patients with P.T.S.D.," said the panel's chairman, Dr. Alfred Berg of the University of Washington, Seattle.
Some critics claim that Congress was not aware of the full extent of the program, but the ultimate judgment on the effectiveness of much of the program may actually have been the actions of Congress.
Letta noted that D'Alema's prickliness and "smartest guy in the room" demeanor made dealing with him a chore, but acknowledged his judgment and political effectiveness, which was why Berlusconi backed him for the EU Foreign Minister position despite their differences.
The Education Secretary adds that she is pleased that Sir Michael agrees that a simple "binary judgment of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the MAT is inappropriate".
