Posted 19 March 2006 - 11:47 AM
So, I went hunting on this one...
Google is swamped by the damn hippies and their websites, confounding any real research attempts. It seems every man and his dog are trying to sell Colloidal silver, gold, bronze, plutonium, etc.
Then on to PubMed, where the above study does not seem to be listed... this aroused my suspicions... so I did a bio on the first named author (in Engineering, that's typically the guy who either did the most work, and usually who wrote the actual paper).
Guy E. Abraham, M.D., is a former Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Endocrinology at the UCLA School of Medicine. Some 36 years ago, he pioneered the development of assays to measure minute quantities of steroid hormones in biological fluids. He has been honored as follows: General Diagnostic Award from the Canadian Association of Clinical Chemists, 1974; the “Medaille d’Honneur” from the University if Liege, Belgium, 1976; the Senior Investigator Award of Pharmacia, Sweden, 1980.
Assuming it's the same guy, it's probably not complete hippie nonsense... he's got a few books but no journals that I could find (although if he was a professor, he probably has a few tucked away).
However, the study was not double-blind, cross-over. The subjects were few and very different (5 aged 15 to 45, one male, 4 female), and the 15 year-old was too young for the WEIS-R tests (designed for 16-years old and up, apparently)... but lets not split hairs.
There is no uniformity in the response to the Verbal/Non-verbal tests... which lads me to an interesting question - were the same WAIS-R tests readministered (familiarity) or were new ones given?
This study doesn't tell me a whole lot, personally. Acoli - please will you update us with feedback on your experiment so we can see if it's working?