Cold showers, getting smokers to gamble and other research oddities taking place in 2023

With 2022 coming to a close, it’s time to take a look at the future. To see what's coming, we took a look at wcg Center Watch to see what sorts of clinical trials are underway that will give us new knowledge in the years to come. The site lists over 52,800 clinic trials that are active and recruiting. A few caught our eye because, well, on the surface they just sound a bit odd. Like the one titled “Feasibility and Effects of Taking Cold Showers”. Out of Switzerland, the intent is to investigate the effects of taking cold showers “on sickness absence, illness days and subjective well-being and to assess both the acceptability of taking cold showers as well as its effects on sickness absence and illness days as well as well-being, sleep quality, skin and hair appearance.” It turns out several other studies looked at the effects of cold showers and found various benefits—and no adverse effects. Even better, the researchers point out, “taking cold showers substantially reduces individual CO2 emission.” The researchers are recruiting 3,000 volunteers who will be randomized to taking either cold or normal temperature showers over three months. All we can say is: Brrr! Another study is “QuitBet Phase II: A Digital Social Game That Pays You to Stop Smoking.” This one uses a gaming approach to get smokers to pay themselves for not smoking. As the call for participants states, it has social gaming elements along with “participant-funded financial incentives in the form of a deposit contract. QuitBet ‘players’ deposit (called the ‘bet’) a specified amount of their own money into the game's ‘pot.’ All ‘winners’ who achieve the game's goal split the pot equally, such that their bet is fully refunded plus participants receive extra money from the forfeited bets of players who did not meet the goal.” Then there is also a bedtime study, the “Delayed Sleep Timing in Teens Study” which is recruiting 150 teenagers to investigate whether helping those with delayed sleep phase (DSP) disorder reduces their risk for substance use disorder (SUD). Teens with DSP will be compared to normal phase teens. Researchers will see if “sleep scheduling and chronotherapeutic approaches (i.e., dim light in the evening and bright light in the morning) improves sleep and neurobehavioral function relevant to SUD risk.” Last but not least is a study investigating whether robot baby harp seals are feasible for animal-assisted interaction (AAI) rehabilitation in hospitalized children. While live animals such as dogs, cats, birds, horses, llamas, sheep, and pigs have been used for AAI, they can leave messes in hospitals. Robo-seals won’t.

Cold showers, getting smokers to gamble and other research oddities taking place in 2023

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