Does Titrating up help weight loss?

[Sasquatch]

I dunno fellas, I really only pin the amount the gnome that lives in the medicine cabinet tells me to.
🧙‍♂️

 

[tubby]

Placebo effects are definitely enhanced by complexity , cost and investment of time and effort. Placebo surgery or sham surgery usually wins by miles for maximum placebo effect. The genuine versions definitely win on the cost front, and it does seem to me that people forget how amazing these drugs are, and how long it has taken to get to a point where there are anti obesity drugs that just work, because they are so cheap from China.
The grey versions definitely win out on the complexity and requirement for investment of time and effort, almost no one using them will have ever had to reconstitute vials with special liquids and very carefully calculate amounts and doses before, as well as the whole semi illicit process of buying them. Not sure which one wins overall.

Is it even fair to still call it a placebo at that point (if it's leading to second order knock-on effects that impact the result)? I think it's entirely plausible that in their brain all that extra work might not necessarily be under the GLP umbrella so much as a viewed as being under a more general weight loss umbrella. And if that's the case, it could correlate to a greater probability of joining a gym, engaging in a specialized dietary strategy (beyond just the GLP), or other behaviors?

I guess maybe that still is a "placebo." I'm not sure if there's another word for it.

 

[lessthanhalf]

I actually found the graph you posted of placebo weight loss from the reta trial interesting. Overall placebo weight loss does tend to be fairly small after a year compared to the GLP's, but there was one person on placebo with 20% loss or so, and it is definitely not even on either side of zero.
Most people feel very uncomfortable with the idea of a drug or medication and especially a placebo altering their behaviour, especially things that are normally seen as being under conscious control, but GLP drugs most definitely do, changing food buying choices, alcohol or drug intake, and most likely several others.

 

[tubby]

I actually found the graph you posted of placebo weight loss from the reta trial interesting. Overall placebo weight loss does tend to be fairly small after a year compared to the GLP's, but there was one person on placebo with 20% loss or so, and it is definitely not even on either side of zero.
Most people feel very uncomfortable with the idea of a drug or medication and especially a placebo altering their behaviour, especially things that are normally seen as being under conscious control, but GLP drugs most definitely do, changing food buying choices, alcohol or drug intake, and most likely several others.

I mean you're right. It would seem that it's my own personal definition of the word placebo that needs to be adjusted. Makes me wonder if that's something that has been studied in the research community: Any idea if they've attempted to further specific or categorize types of placebo?

Obviously, the classic example is the sugar pill, but it seems to me there could be sense in trying to differentiate between an "I must be on the drug so I'd expect to do better" placebo effect VS "now that I'm investing in this one particular way of achieving a certain goal I'll subconsciously bias other behaviors in my life towards achieving that same goal too." Although I guess that would be more of a question to post to a competent psychology researcher.