Scientific method: statistical errors
Three pages on PainSci cite Nuzzo 2014: 1. Most Pain Treatments Damned With Faint Praise 2. Statistical Significance Abuse 3. A kooky “scientific” study of massage
PainSci notes on Nuzzo 2014:
I’m fairly sure this paper is the origin of the term p-hacking! Which is now quite famous, used by all the best critical analysis nerds.
For an excellent review of this paper, see Dr. Steven Novella’s blog post, “P-Hacking and Other Statistical Sins.”
related content
- A quote: “If you torture data for long enough, it will confess to anything.” ~ Ronald Harry Coase (see notes, 100 words)
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Classical Conditioning Fails to Elicit Allodynia in an Experimental Study with Healthy Humans. Madden 2017 Pain Med.
- Topical glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) and eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion achilles tendinopathy (the NEAT trial): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Kirwan 2024 Br J Sports Med.
- Placebo analgesia in physical and psychological interventions: Systematic review and meta-analysis of three-armed trials. Hohenschurz-Schmidt 2024 Eur J Pain.
- Recovery trajectories in common musculoskeletal complaints by diagnosis contra prognostic phenotypes. Aasdahl 2021 BMC Musculoskelet Disord.
- Cannabidiol (CBD) products for pain: ineffective, expensive, and with potential harms. Moore 2023 J Pain.