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Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

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Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#21

> In the group that took the drug, 11% needed hospitalization or an extended ER stay, compared to 16% of those on dummy pills. Is that really promising? Very close to margin of error if not within.

> The results, published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Global Health, were so strong that independent experts monitoring the study recommended stopping it early because the results were clear.

This sounds suspiciously vague. What experts? How did they become involved? Did they stop it because the study proved an effect, or because it was clearly not designed to be able to prove an effect?

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16% > 11% represents a 31% decrease in the absolute number of hospitalizations. That's nearly a ONE THIRD improvement in the hospitalization rate. In places where hospitals are at or near capacity, that would make a huge difference. Or were you trying to make a statement about the statistical validity of the result, because the outcomes differ by 5%? Because that's not how statistics work. A well constructed study of…

N = 1500 One sample had 79-86 out of 750 hospitalized, and the other had 117-123 out of 750. Does that seem sufficient to demonstrate statistical significance? Edit: found the actual numbers in the study 79 [11%] of 741 vs 119 [16%] of 756

Yes, as a matter of fact, it does demonstrate statistical significance.

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N = 1500 One sample had 79-86 out of 750 hospitalized, and the other had 117-123 out of 750. Does that seem sufficient to demonstrate statistical significance? Edit: found the actual numbers in the study 79 [11%] of 741 vs 119 [16%] of 756

Yes, as a matter of fact, it does demonstrate statistical significance.

For what minimum detectable effect?

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#24

> In the group that took the drug, 11% needed hospitalization or an extended ER stay, compared to 16% of those on dummy pills. Is that really promising? Very close to margin of error if not within.

> The results, published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Global Health, were so strong that independent experts monitoring the study recommended stopping it early because the results were clear.

> When the DSMC met on Aug 5, 2021, it recommended that the TOGETHER trial stop randomly assigning patients to the fluvoxamine group, as this comparison had met the prespecified superiority criterion for the primary endpoint (prespecified superiority threshold 97·6%).

This... is not how it's supposed to work.

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#25

> In the group that took the drug, 11% needed hospitalization or an extended ER stay, compared to 16% of those on dummy pills. Is that really promising? Very close to margin of error if not within.

Hah, backseat statistician are we? The next sentence of the article that said experts recommended to end the trials early should make it clear to you that to them that's really promising. Your last sentence basically says you're sure you know better than the panel of experts.

I don't know what the point of my reply is other than to recommend to you to have some humility that you might not know stuff...

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16% > 11% represents a 31% decrease in the absolute number of hospitalizations. That's nearly a ONE THIRD improvement in the hospitalization rate. In places where hospitals are at or near capacity, that would make a huge difference. Or were you trying to make a statement about the statistical validity of the result, because the outcomes differ by 5%? Because that's not how statistics work. A well constructed study of…

I don't know what the other post had in mind, but does seem like smaller effect sizes have a way of evaporating under scrutiny. One third is pretty big when looking at it from a group perspective, but not really that big from a personal perspective. If someone told me that taking a pill would reduce my chances of hospitalization by 5%, I would certainly be looking closely at the side effects.

5% is not a pointwise prediction at the individual level. You can't interpret it like you did.

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16% > 11% represents a 31% decrease in the absolute number of hospitalizations. That's nearly a ONE THIRD improvement in the hospitalization rate. In places where hospitals are at or near capacity, that would make a huge difference. Or were you trying to make a statement about the statistical validity of the result, because the outcomes differ by 5%? Because that's not how statistics work. A well constructed study of…

N = 1500 One sample had 79-86 out of 750 hospitalized, and the other had 117-123 out of 750. Does that seem sufficient to demonstrate statistical significance? Edit: found the actual numbers in the study 79 [11%] of 741 vs 119 [16%] of 756

Most drugs get approved with less strong effect than this

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#29

> In the group that took the drug, 11% needed hospitalization or an extended ER stay, compared to 16% of those on dummy pills. Is that really promising? Very close to margin of error if not within.

Margin of error is not fixed. Depends on sample size. if you have a group of millions your error range will be in the hundredth of a percent. Here we are not talking about 20 people in each group. 1500. Thats very significant.

I recommend you take some stats courses if this does not make sense.

Re: Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early Covid-19

#30
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N = 1500 One sample had 79-86 out of 750 hospitalized, and the other had 117-123 out of 750. Does that seem sufficient to demonstrate statistical significance? Edit: found the actual numbers in the study 79 [11%] of 741 vs 119 [16%] of 756

Most drugs get approved with less strong effect than this

Well, of course they do. There's a terrific market for pharmaceuticals.
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