Posted by mattdds on February 10, 2003, at 15:20:51
In reply to Re: Placebo Responders Dropped...abstracts, posted by linkadge on February 10, 2003, at 14:13:10
>Often critics don't like the idea of well-being in a pill
You are beating up a straw man here. I don't think anyone implied that. Certainly the idea of curing mental illness with a pill appeals to me, which is why I tried so damn many AD's! Your argument distracts from the real issue, which is their efficacy, which in my opinion is not at all that well-founded, as you imply.
>To those of us on this board, there is no question that these drugs help.Who is "we"? Am I not someone who posts on this board as well? I certainly have not seen that everyone on this board is in agreement about AD's working well. Much to the contrary, I see evidence of the drugs not working for at least 50% of those taking them.
>Where critics often turn a blind eye
is in the longer run, where the placebo people
often relapse.When they do work, there is "poop out", which apparently did not occur to you. I have read countless posts on this board that go something like, "Help! Celexa poop-out!", or something like that.
You are quite right that these meds help some people. All I am saying is that placebos do too! If you gave placebo to 1000 patients with depression, you would get 300-500 of them saying that it worked. Imagine, 300-500 success stories of people raving about how much 10mg of sucrose miraculously changed their lives!
I think that we need more research on what the placebo effect is. In my opinion (that's all this is by the way, an opinion), that is where the bulk of antidepressant response is coming from.
Again, I don't claim to have all the answers. And I certainly don't have any "special" knowledge. I could very well be wrong. Maybe AD's do work on some level. I'm just not personally convinced. I am just revoicing some questions about this, that I don't feel have been answered yet.
Best,
Matt
poster:mattdds
thread:140316
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030208/msgs/140456.html