Topic summary

Blinding yourself: practical methods and their limits — the long version

Research Methods › N-of-1 designs worked example effect size confounding data table

This is a generated summary. It shows the 5 most-liked posts from a topic of 12, in their original order, with the accepted answer included where one exists. It is a reading aid and it will miss nuance — the full topic is the record.

np_gilmoreTL3Nurse practitioner31 May 2026 · edited#3

s.diallo, post #2: The opening post is right about the mechanism and I think understates the practical bit. Nothing in a personal experiment is medical advice to anyone including yourself, and several people here have found that a prescriber will happily discuss a well-documented one. Go to post

Sample size in n-of-1: you are the sample. Repeated measurements (weekly weighings, daily mood scores) increase the power to detect a real effect even though n=1.

The conclusion is tentative; the arithmetic underneath it is not.

12 likes in reply to #2 2mo

m.vukovicTL221 Jun 2026#6

Following this. I have the same question and no better information than the first post.

25 likes 1mo

priorauth_notesTL2Regular28 Jun 2026#7

m.vukovic, post #6: Following this. I have the same question and no better information than the first post. Go to post

The best thing about this subcategory is that people post their protocols before their results. That order is what keeps it honest.

7 likes in reply to #6 30d

l.piresTL216 Jul 2026#10

m.dalgaard, post #5: Duration should be set by how long an effect would take to appear rather than by patience. Stopping early is the commonest reason a personal experiment answers nothing. I checked the source rather than the summary, and they differ. Go to post

Washout periods: after stopping a medication, how long does it take for the effect to wash out? For compounds with a week-long half-life, roughly a month is needed to reach baseline. Using that washout period in a before-after design strengthens the inference.

That is my reading. Someone else read the same page differently and was reasonable.

18 likes in reply to #5 12d

f.sjobergTL221 Jul 2026#11

Appreciated. The plain phrasing does more work here than a longer post would.

20 likes 7d

Read the full topic (12 posts)

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