The drugs don't work... placebos

[Matty1973]

Apparently placebos are not covered under ant-doping laws!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article4160494.ece

A spokesman for the World Anti-Doping Association said that the rules did not cover “placebo dopers”. He said: “If the substance involved is not a banned substance, that would not fall under the scope of anti-doping laws, regardless of any intention to cheat.”

 

[theprestige]

Why would they be?

Is anybody seriously arguing that if my runner wins the race because I gave him an oatmeal pill and told him it was grey-market performance enhancers, and he experienced a psychological performance boost due to my lie, I'd be cheating?

 

[Fnord]

Why would they be? Is anybody seriously arguing that if my runner wins the race because I gave him an oatmeal pill and told him it was grey-market performance enhancers, and he experienced a psychological performance boost due to my lie, I'd be cheating?

I hope not! Otherwise, saying a blessing, reciting a prayer, or carrying a good luck charm would also be considered cheating for their alleged "Performance Enhancing" properties.

 

[DoubtingStephen]

If you whisper a prayer so near to silently that you can nay even hear it yourself, is that homepathic placebo doping?

 

[Earthborn]

If you whisper a prayer so near to silently that you can nay even hear it yourself, is that homepathic placebo doping?

No, Jesus himself said that you should pray in silence, so obviously praying in silence is using an active ingredient. It would be homoeopathic placebo doping if you pray to lose (like cures like; praying to lose cures losing) very loudly if that prayer is dissolved in a huge flood of meaningless rhetoric.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

The researchers gave a very poor interpretation of their results. The found that those given placebo but believed it to be growth hormone performed better than those that were given placebo and believed it was placebo. From this they inferred that the belief affected the performance. However it is equally possible that the causality runs in the opposite direction, given that they measured beliefs 8 weeks into the study. To make it clearer: A bunch of people are given placeboes and told they may be getting growth hormone. Over the course of the study some people's performance goes up, some stays the same and some goes down. The ones who have got better think to themselves "Hey, I must have been in the growth hormone group" and the ones who stay the same or get worse think "I must have got the placebo". Et voila - there's your results!

This was clearly a post hoc look at the data they collected for a different purpose (to check the adequacy of their blinding procedures) which they did because their main study question turned out negative. I would have to have a look at the published study to see whether the poor interpretation lies solely with the authors, or whether it is just the science illiterate media striking again.

 

[TheDaver]

Well, that’s poorly thought out. People are punished for intent to commit a crime all the time. Take police prostitution stings and “child predator” stings, for example. It doesn’t matter that the “prostitute” or “13 year old girl” you were talking to was a cop, you’re still going down.

So an athlete can want with every fiber of his being to dope, and be totally unrepentant when he’s caught, but he can get off scot-free because the drug he took was fake?

That isn’t right.

 

[Fnord]

So an athlete can want with every fiber of his being to dope, and be totally unrepentant when he’s caught, but he can get off scot-free because the drug he took was fake? That isn’t right.

But, it is legal, and that's all that matters.