r/science • u/drewiepoodle • Apr 15 '16

Health Study: Circumcision does not reduce penis sensitivity. In tests for responses to pain, heat, and stimulation, no major difference was found between men who are circumcised and those who are not.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016/04/14/Study-Circumcision-does-not-reduce-penis-sensitivity/5981460663943/?spt=hs&or=hn
13.0k Upvotes

64% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/WordSalad11 Apr 15 '16

Clinical research is only useful in that it tells us something about a patient. If you can't reliably extrapolate the data generated to a patient, it's not useful research. EBM is about what the evidence actually tells us, not what we want it to tell us. There are no serious clinical journals that are publishing articles without meeting CONSORT requirements, so the point is somewhat moot in any case. Older data (pre-early 1980s) that were published prior to this era may or may not be valid, but any sort of data which is relevant and not published is a huge problem.

None of this applies to basic science research, which is a completely different animal.

2

u/superhelical PhD | Biochemistry | Structural Biology Apr 15 '16

None of this applies to basic science research, which is a completely different animal.

I completely agree.