I’m thinking about buying Adrafinil (powder) and a bunch of empty capsules. I’ll put Adrafinil in half, sugar or something in the other half, and then do the obvious.
Does anyone else do blind testing on themselves?
There’s talk about self-experimenting on LW, but not much about blind tests, even in areas where that would be possible, like nootropics and supplements. I wonder why that is.
Adrafinil causes a buzz like amphetamine does (but not as intense relative to its effects on alertness). Well, modafinil does, and adrafinil exerts its effects by turning into modafinil in the body. I notice the buzz even at the low end of its therapeutic range. A little higher (200 mg of modafinil for a 200-lb man) and other people (who are vigilant about that sort of thing probably because they grew up around substance abusers) have been able to tell that I am on a mind-altering drug. (I become more talkative for one thing.)
Also, it is not obvious what you mean by “do the obvious”. Consider weed, which tends to make you think you are having penetrating insights, but if you write them down and read them the next day, they are nonsense.
Also, it is not obvious what you mean by “do the obvious”.
Have someone separate the capsules into two bowls, and take from each for a perioid of time, avoiding the placebo effect. Afterwards, check which was sugar and which was Adrafinil.
If for this particular substance it’s easy to notice that you’re on it, that wouldn’t work, of course.
Right, but no blinded clinical trial I know of ever had the goal of seeing if subjects could discriminate between drug and placebo and that is it—they, e.g., administer tests of memory or ability to avoid errors in a tedious task. I anticipated that you would say that the goal is to collect subjective impressions of your effectiveness, which is why I wrote the final paragraph of my previous comment.
Right, but no blinded clinical trial I know of ever had the goal of seeing if subjects could discriminate between drug and placebo and that is it—they, e.g., administer tests of memory or ability to avoid errors in a tedious task.
I’ve heard of a couple of studies of caffeine that asked for subjective measures. That’s not quite the same as asking the question straight-up, but it’s pretty good. The main problem is that I don’t know if they told people what was going on, or whether they lied and said it was caffeine. That should be easy to answer from the studies, but I can’t find them.
I think there was a recent study that made the rounds that administered different amounts of caffeine through coffee and asked people how wired they felt, with no distinction.
(The main part of the study was where they gave people cognitive tasks and made claims to the subjects about whether caffeine helped. The interaction of the caffeine and the claim was weird.)
Also, I heard about an older study that fairly small (but nonzero), amounts of caffeine eliminated withdrawal headaches.
On a related note a study found that the smell of coffee gave a cognitive improvement. I obviously wouldn’t expect the effect to last if you gamed it repetitively.
I only saw a second hand report on the study, which suggested smelling the coffee 15 minutes before you actually drink it, maximising the overall effect. It was probably one of the posts made by http://www.lumosity.com/.
The main part of the study was where they gave people cognitive tasks and made claims to the subjects about whether caffeine helped. The interaction of the caffeine and the claim was weird.
Yes, I think the caffeine always helped, but I think there was one combination where the effect of claim was larger than the effect of the caffeine. At that point, I become a bit nervous about the meaning of whether caffeine helps. (by “interaction,” I meant the interaction of effects on performance)
Okay. Makes me wonder, though, if the subject knows what he’s getting anyway, why is the test blind in the first place?
Edit: Yes, I’d do objective test like dual-n-back and math. Other than collecting subjective impressions, I guess the usefulness of this idea depends on whether performance in those test is susceptible to improvement by placebo effects.
I’m thinking about buying Adrafinil (powder) and a bunch of empty capsules. I’ll put Adrafinil in half, sugar or something in the other half, and then do the obvious.
Does anyone else do blind testing on themselves?
There’s talk about self-experimenting on LW, but not much about blind tests, even in areas where that would be possible, like nootropics and supplements. I wonder why that is.
Adrafinil causes a buzz like amphetamine does (but not as intense relative to its effects on alertness). Well, modafinil does, and adrafinil exerts its effects by turning into modafinil in the body. I notice the buzz even at the low end of its therapeutic range. A little higher (200 mg of modafinil for a 200-lb man) and other people (who are vigilant about that sort of thing probably because they grew up around substance abusers) have been able to tell that I am on a mind-altering drug. (I become more talkative for one thing.)
Also, it is not obvious what you mean by “do the obvious”. Consider weed, which tends to make you think you are having penetrating insights, but if you write them down and read them the next day, they are nonsense.
Have someone separate the capsules into two bowls, and take from each for a perioid of time, avoiding the placebo effect. Afterwards, check which was sugar and which was Adrafinil.
If for this particular substance it’s easy to notice that you’re on it, that wouldn’t work, of course.
Right, but no blinded clinical trial I know of ever had the goal of seeing if subjects could discriminate between drug and placebo and that is it—they, e.g., administer tests of memory or ability to avoid errors in a tedious task. I anticipated that you would say that the goal is to collect subjective impressions of your effectiveness, which is why I wrote the final paragraph of my previous comment.
I’ve heard of a couple of studies of caffeine that asked for subjective measures. That’s not quite the same as asking the question straight-up, but it’s pretty good. The main problem is that I don’t know if they told people what was going on, or whether they lied and said it was caffeine. That should be easy to answer from the studies, but I can’t find them.
I think there was a recent study that made the rounds that administered different amounts of caffeine through coffee and asked people how wired they felt, with no distinction. (The main part of the study was where they gave people cognitive tasks and made claims to the subjects about whether caffeine helped. The interaction of the caffeine and the claim was weird.)
Also, I heard about an older study that fairly small (but nonzero), amounts of caffeine eliminated withdrawal headaches.
On a related note a study found that the smell of coffee gave a cognitive improvement. I obviously wouldn’t expect the effect to last if you gamed it repetitively.
I only saw a second hand report on the study, which suggested smelling the coffee 15 minutes before you actually drink it, maximising the overall effect. It was probably one of the posts made by http://www.lumosity.com/.
Did it? Surely they took that measure too...
Yes, I think the caffeine always helped, but I think there was one combination where the effect of claim was larger than the effect of the caffeine. At that point, I become a bit nervous about the meaning of whether caffeine helps.
(by “interaction,” I meant the interaction of effects on performance)
Okay. Makes me wonder, though, if the subject knows what he’s getting anyway, why is the test blind in the first place?
Edit: Yes, I’d do objective test like dual-n-back and math. Other than collecting subjective impressions, I guess the usefulness of this idea depends on whether performance in those test is susceptible to improvement by placebo effects.