Posted by SLS on July 16, 2006, at 11:58:27
In reply to Re: To Those Who Switched From Celexa to Lexapro.., posted by bassman on July 16, 2006, at 10:18:40
> Really interesting abstract! I wonder what the actual numbers looked like. But it is in definite support of your thesis that there are "psychologically" depressed people and "biochemically" depressed people (pardon the wild over-simplification; the idea just being what the major source of the depression is)-or that there is percentage of each in an individual and when you start doing clinical trials and DON'T have that piece of info (which no one ever does), the results get screwy; e.g., drugs that we know work as AD's for some people doing no better than placebo. Of course, everyone is "biochemically" depressed independent of source and then there is the factor of how depressed a person is, in an absolute sense, versus what they report (another variable that clinical trails can't get their hands on). Have I got that right?
Sounds good to me.
I wish the designers of these depression studies would at least use the DSM. However, I would prefer that they use 2 months as the criterion for the period of time symptoms should persist rather than the 2 weeks listed.
I have seen it suggested that the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) is more accurate than the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) that I see used so often. Both are acceptable, though, from what I can see.
I think there is still quite a bit of room yet to improve the designs of clinical trials of antidepressants.
Depression is an elusive phenomenon to define and characterize. I don't think it is useful to conceptualize and generalize it as being either an entirely psychological or biological condition, although some people might very well be located at one or the other end of this spectrum. I understand what you are saying. Ultimately, every thought and feeling is the expression of a biological event. I like to say that the brain determines the mind as the mind sculpts the brain.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:666681
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060709/msgs/667488.html