Some drugs may have sedation as a "wanted" effect (eg hypnotics) and others as an unwanted effect (eg, antyhistaminics). The evaluation of sedative load by using. eg. the Sedative load scale does not differentiate between the two. How can we interpret such results? Suppose we do not have information on the drug indication nor clinical outcomes (population database research).
Barbara Leigh did something like this with alcohol back in the day. If I remember correctly, she had folks rate the effect and its desirability separately. I might be mis-remembering but it didn't have much impact for predicting drinking and the distributions (once you multiplied effect x desirability) were hellish for parametric stats.
Leigh, B.C. Evaluations of alcohol expectancies: Do they add to prediction of drinking patterns? Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 1987, 1, 135-139.
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