Boondock
Senior Member
- Reaction score
- 13
We've noticed for a long time that stacks of forum users get sides from finasteride. Despite the 2-3% that had trouble in trials, if you read the boards you'd think the difference was more like 50%. Why?
Traditionally people have ascribed this to the placebo effect. On the boards, this claim says, people read about sides, and therefore experience them. That's never felt like a satisfying explanation for me - certainly not for the numbers we're describing.
Thus, I want to put forward an alternative theory. I believe that the sample of people on message forums - unlike those in the clinical trials - is self-selecting, and therefore distorted. This is to say: it takes a certain kind of person to visit a hair loss message forum, and these individuals may have a different response to surveys than the broader population.
In the context of finasteride, I believe that the relevant factor here is that forum users tend to be sensitive people. By that I do not mean that they're girly girls, just that they pay attention to their bodies a whole lot more than most people. A lot of people don't know they're getting hairloss until they're NW3; hair loss forum members are often counting hairs even at NW1.
It follows that since these are the kind of people who pay close attention to their bodies, they may be the kind of people to experience and worry about sides from finasteride.
I actually think that, if you look hard enough, most people would notice some difference with how they feel on finasteride. The difference is that most people don't look hard enough, and don't really care about it. They shrug it off.
Forum users, on the other hand, are hyper-aware of everything that's going on with them. As soon as they experience some change in how they feel on finasteride - and they probably will, since it is blocking a major androgen - their internal warning system goes haywire. The difference in functioning may not be that significant, but it seems bigger because they're focusing on it. Any bodily function can seem more of an issue than it is when you pay more attention to it than you should.
And, because these individuals are more often hyper-aware, they can't take their mind off it. If they feel slightly odd on finasteride, they'll be unable to focus off of that. It bugs them, so they quit the meds.
So basically what I'm saying is:
1. Forum users are disproportionately sensitive and hyper-aware individuals.
2. Finasteride often causes minor changes in feeling, which most can ignore or do not notice.
3. Hyper-aware people, however, will notice these effects.
4. Therefore, forum users disproportionately experience side effects.
Discuss.
Traditionally people have ascribed this to the placebo effect. On the boards, this claim says, people read about sides, and therefore experience them. That's never felt like a satisfying explanation for me - certainly not for the numbers we're describing.
Thus, I want to put forward an alternative theory. I believe that the sample of people on message forums - unlike those in the clinical trials - is self-selecting, and therefore distorted. This is to say: it takes a certain kind of person to visit a hair loss message forum, and these individuals may have a different response to surveys than the broader population.
In the context of finasteride, I believe that the relevant factor here is that forum users tend to be sensitive people. By that I do not mean that they're girly girls, just that they pay attention to their bodies a whole lot more than most people. A lot of people don't know they're getting hairloss until they're NW3; hair loss forum members are often counting hairs even at NW1.
It follows that since these are the kind of people who pay close attention to their bodies, they may be the kind of people to experience and worry about sides from finasteride.
I actually think that, if you look hard enough, most people would notice some difference with how they feel on finasteride. The difference is that most people don't look hard enough, and don't really care about it. They shrug it off.
Forum users, on the other hand, are hyper-aware of everything that's going on with them. As soon as they experience some change in how they feel on finasteride - and they probably will, since it is blocking a major androgen - their internal warning system goes haywire. The difference in functioning may not be that significant, but it seems bigger because they're focusing on it. Any bodily function can seem more of an issue than it is when you pay more attention to it than you should.
And, because these individuals are more often hyper-aware, they can't take their mind off it. If they feel slightly odd on finasteride, they'll be unable to focus off of that. It bugs them, so they quit the meds.
So basically what I'm saying is:
1. Forum users are disproportionately sensitive and hyper-aware individuals.
2. Finasteride often causes minor changes in feeling, which most can ignore or do not notice.
3. Hyper-aware people, however, will notice these effects.
4. Therefore, forum users disproportionately experience side effects.
Discuss.
