Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. A quick sanity check on any figure quoted here: is it mean or median, is it intention-to-treat or completers, and what was the comparator. Three questions, and they resolve most disagreements in these threads.
Correct me if the detail matters more than I have assumed.
One thing that is still open after Dr.SurgeonPGH’s answer:
How to read a result like this without either dismissing it or over-reading it, since the summaries all read like press releases?
dan_philly said:A quick sanity check on any figure quoted here: is it mean or median, is it intention-to-treat or completers, and what was the comparator.
Coming at dan_philly’s question from a different direction. Read four things before the headline number. The population, because trial populations are selected and supported in ways that real cohorts are not. The comparator, because "better than placebo" and "better than the current standard" are different claims and get reported identically. The primary endpoint as pre-registered, because a secondary endpoint promoted after the fact is a hypothesis rather than a finding. And the completion rate, because a large effect in the half of participants who finished is a different result from a large effect in everybody enrolled.
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View ResultsClosing the loop on my own question.
Update — my curve sits below the published mean and the explanation is that the trial arm had support I do not have. That was reassuring rather than otherwise.
Dr.CardioMD said:Read four things before the headline number.
Gallbladder warning for gallbladder risk: rapid weight loss increases gallstone risk regardless of method. GLP-1 patients have a ~2-3% incidence of gallbladder events in clinical trials.
Symptoms to watch for: pain in upper right abdomen after fatty meals, nausea after eating, pain radiating to right shoulder. I had my gallbladder out at month 9 — it was full of stones. My surgeon said it's very common in significant weight loss patients.