What Does It Take to Synergistically Combine Sub-Potent Natural Products into Drug-Level Potent Combinations?

10.1371/journal.pone.0049969PLoS ONE711

Is acupuncture analgesia an expectancy effect? Preliminary evidence based on participants' perceived assignments in two placebo-controlled trials

This purpose of this article is to contrast the analgesic efficacy of acupuncture following dental surgery with the analgesic effects based on the expectation of benefit in two independently conducted placebo-controlled trials evaluating acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy for dental surgery. Both trials used pain following dental surgery as the outcome variable, and both included a blinding check to ascertain patients' beliefs regarding which treatment they were receiving. Although no statistically significant analgesic effect was observed between the acupuncture and placebo groups, participants in both experiments who believed they received real acupuncture reported significantly less pain than patients who believed that they received a placebo. Patients' beliefs regarding the receipt of acupuncture bore a stronger relationship to pain than any specific action possessed by acupuncture. These results also support the importance of both employing credible controls for the placebo effect in clinical trials and evaluating the credibility of those controls.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Does radio tagging affect the survival or reproduction of small cetaceans? A test

A long-term study of botos (inia geoffrensis) in the Brazilian Amazon permitted the comparison of survival and reproduction between 51 adults fitted with radio transmitters and an equal number that were captured and handled in the same way but released without a transmitter. For both sexes combined, 47 radio tagged botos (92.2%) survived at least three years after release compared with 42 (82.4%) without radios, equating to annual survival of 97.3% and 93.6% respectively. The difference was not statistically significant. Eight of 15 closely monitored radio tagged females were lactating at capture, and all their calves weaned successfully. Two that were pregnant at capture subsequently gave birth. The mean number of calves per year born to these 15 females after first release was 0.172 (SD = 0.107) and to 17 non-tagged was 0.174 (SD = 0.095), again a non-significant difference. These results indicate that the anchoring of packages to the dorsal fin of dolphins can be accomplished with no measurable impact on their subsequent survival or reproductive output. However, botos may be unusually robust to handling, and this study should not be used to justify using similar techniques on other species without customary caution, diligence, and expert guidanc