Clinically Proven! (Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge)

 "Clinically proven!" shouts the add.

Sort of conjures up visions of scientists in lab coats pouring over carefully measured results, doesn't it? It is far more likely that the "proof" is a flawed study specifically pre-designed to show a desired result. 

"Whatever your product does, PCR is here to provide your brand with the appropriate efficacy testing to make your claims a fact by proving their legitimacy," says the web site of Princeton Consumer Research, a New Jersey based company that does product testing for its clients. Sounds objective and clinical to me! Why bother going to the expense and effort of an actual study when you can outsource the work to a company that will concoct a study that will "make your claims a fact"?

Here are some other tricks of the clinically proven trade.

Don't use a control group.

One of the cornerstones of clinical research is incorporating a control group into the study. Any real trial requires one group using the product being tested and another, essentially identical, group taking a placebo. "Clinical studies" that omit this step are basically worthless.

Measure Something Impressive that Doesn't Matter.

A test can be perfectly valid and accurate without proving what the study is intended to show. A long running television ad for Lipozene (Lose weight without changing your diet or lifestyle!) claims the product is "clinically proven" to "help you lose four times more weight". Uhm, four times more weight than what? And does the product do the job, or only "help" you to do it? The commercials do not say.

Ignore the Statistics.

One of the favorite ways to fudge your results is to ignore statistical significance. If the margin of error in a study is, say plus or minus 10% and the difference between the study and control groups is less than that, it proves nothing. But that often doesn't stop a company from claiming "clinically proven".

Publish in Poorly or Un-refereed Journals.

Not all publications are alike. JAMA is one thing. The Journal of Society for Development in New Net Environment in Bosnia Herzegovina is another. (Yes, its a real thing.) But companies will use either to claim "clinically proven".

 

Something may indeed be clinically proven. Or not. One thing that is well proven is that you can not rely on a company's marketing to learn the truth.