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Illusionary Correlation, False Causation, and Clustering Illusion

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Abstract

David was a 34-year-old man with temporal lobe epilepsy who presented to a neurologists office for a routine consultation. He had been taking seizure medications for many years, but wished to stop them, saying he was “tired of taking medications.” While his neurologist did not encourage him to do so, he suggested treatment with turmeric, saying that a number of his patients with epilepsy had remarkable reductions in seizure frequency with the use of this medication. David eagerly embraced this approach and was seizure-free on daily turmeric supplements for 6 months.

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Howard, J. (2019). Illusionary Correlation, False Causation, and Clustering Illusion. In: Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93224-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93224-8_15

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