Thursday, March 4, 2010

Decently written article on Migranes

Sometimes distilling the information from scientific study can be a real headache (no pun intended here!) But it can be done. This article on a possible migrane cure includes a number of important points that need disseminating when talking about studies like these.

  • Sample size - it mentions that the sample is fairly small - a couple of hundred people
  • Succes rate - it mentions that around 40% of people were migraine free after two hours
  • It mentions that the success rate was distinctly different from the placebo (though doesn't say what success the placebo had)
  • It gives a decent outline of the problem and the solution.

It's nice to see articles like this. This particular one is well outside my field, but I can see that important points are included. One of the big problems with reporting I find is that things are often touted as cures or solved problems, when there may still be a significant degree of uncertainty, which is not put across well. Top marks for this article.

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