Posted by linkadge on July 18, 2006, at 20:32:10
In reply to Re: couldn't have said it better myself, posted by Jost on July 18, 2006, at 19:41:23
>I should also note, however, that there must be >some sense among scientists that treatments do >work in a way that they take seriously. I say >this because there are ethical concerns >beginning to be reported about using placebos in >studies. This ethical concern is about the use >of placebos in patients for whom there is a >proven treatment--for whom it is not considered >ethically acceptable to give no treatment in a >study of potentially helpful drugs.
I would argue that the so called "ethical concerns" are due to the fact that certain researchers wan't the placebo's out of their trials so that people don't end up seeing how well the placebo often performs.
When placebo and active drug are often so neck- and-neck, I see no ethical concerns in using placebo. If you're just as likely to get better on placebo, its not ethically wrong to only use this in your trial.
If your math is right in that 64% of people had inadequate results from antidepressants despite the best possable care, then clearly this is confirming what I know.
We, here on psychobabble are *not* the only ones who don't do so great on these drugs.
Just cause you don't have or know how to use the internet, or don't have the ambition to go online, doesn't mean that your treatment works fine. There are plenty of people who could probably confirm similary modest results but for whatever reason havn't connected. It really depends on what you "want" to see.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:662854
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060717/msgs/668133.html