ALSFRS-R Scores of Patients on Lithium
Showing: From 18 months before lithium to 6 months after lithium.
Filters: at least 3 FRS point(s) before lithium, at least 1 FRS point(s) after lithium
Caveat: This is a prototype that is attempting to display real-time effects of a treatment in the real world. In contrast to a well controlled double-blind placebo controlled trial, there are many variables, both known and unknown, that suggest significant caution should be used before drawing any conclusions from the results. Known problems include the possible effects of patient optimism, the "placebo effect", data quality, selection bias, attrition bias, and many other factors. Patients often experience significant improvement after starting any experimental treatment, including placebos. This does not mean that the effects are not real. Attitude and hope are factors that actually affect progression and interpretation of functional ability in a disease. PatientsLikeMe is committed to working through these issues and to provide a new tool for patients and doctors to evaluate treatments in an appropriate ethical manner. Currently there are no statistics displayed or calculated on the graph because of the highly variable nature of the data. We are working to develop a statistical model for individual and group changes using the large data set we have gathered from our large population of ALS patients at PatientsLikeMe.
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