Amir wrote:None of the 20+ patients I am treating have had a relapse. What does this mean? A 100% result!
No, not in the same terms. At 20 patients, your confidence interval would be pretty small, and your results are not a blinded trial. You cannot scientifically compare them to the results from proper trials.
I am FAR from an interferon groupie (I did my worst ever on Rebif, and stopped pretty quickly), however, I do have respect for the large (ie 000's of participants), double blinded scientific trials used in medicine.
If you are NOT performing a proper scientific trial, then advising a patient to stop any medication that has gone through the full 3 stage trial process, just so you can tell what is making them better is
dangerous and not about the patients best interests, when you cannot specify any contraindications. Otherwise I think it should be up to the patient to make the decision.
As an MS sufferer for many years, I personally would be happy to take 10 treatments, without knowing which one has worked (as long as one of them works, and the side effects are acceptable). After I am better (a safer position to be taking bets on any single unproven treatment), THEN I may stop one treatment at a time, to see which has made the difference.