Posted by: CMdeux
« on: October 31, 2011, 11:41:08 AM »Okay-- we've never done a PEANUT challenge.
But I can tell you that we HAVE done a single-blinded food challenge. My daughter did NOT know when the switchover from control to experimental sample occurred.
The patient generally cannot tell which is the negative control initially, which is where you'd expect to see any psychosomatic symptoms manifest. Ergo, that really is the point in most food challenges.
I realize that no, this doesn't really address "blind" dosing in a TRIAL.
You could check with Mommabridget-- her son is involved in a peanut desensitization trial, and they had initially been in the sham treatment (placebo, or control) group, and they were pretty confident that this was so by about a month into things.
The "why" of that I'll leave to her.
But yes, it is generally not completely unclear to the patient once the doses become larger than maybe 500 mg (much lower, of course, for someone who remains fully allergic), even if it is unclear to the physician/researcher.
But I can tell you that we HAVE done a single-blinded food challenge. My daughter did NOT know when the switchover from control to experimental sample occurred.
The patient generally cannot tell which is the negative control initially, which is where you'd expect to see any psychosomatic symptoms manifest. Ergo, that really is the point in most food challenges.
I realize that no, this doesn't really address "blind" dosing in a TRIAL.
You could check with Mommabridget-- her son is involved in a peanut desensitization trial, and they had initially been in the sham treatment (placebo, or control) group, and they were pretty confident that this was so by about a month into things.
The "why" of that I'll leave to her.
But yes, it is generally not completely unclear to the patient once the doses become larger than maybe 500 mg (much lower, of course, for someone who remains fully allergic), even if it is unclear to the physician/researcher.