Mining uncertainty
The FDA collects data on adverse events in people taking any prescription drugs. This information is, as it should be, available for other uses. I’ve been involved in research using it.
The data are also available for less helpful purposes. As Scott Alexander found, if you ask Google whether basically anything could cause basically anything, there are companies that make sure Google will return some pages reporting that precise association. And, as he explains, this is serious.
For example, I tried “Adderall” and “plantar fasciitis” as an implausible combination and got 4 hits based on FDA data. And “Accutane” and “plantar fasciitis”, and “Advair” and “plantar fasciitis”, and “acyclovir” and “plantar fasciitis”. Then I got bored.
It’s presumably true that there are people who have been taking Adderall and at the same time have had plantar fasciitis. But given enough patients to work with, that will be true for any combination of drug and side effect. And, in fact, the websites will happily put up a page saying there are no reported cases, but still saying “you are not alone” and suggesting you join their support group.
These websites are bullshit in the sense of philosopher Harry Frankfurt: it is irrelevant to their purpose whether Adderall really causes plantar fasciitis or not. They make their money from the question, not from the answer.
(via Keith Ng)
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »