> > --- In [email protected], "shanti2218411" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > One of the most powerful elements of any effective > > > treatment whether psychiatric or medical is HOPE.The instillation > of hope will frequently evoke the placebo response.The latter is a > real psycho-physiological phenomenon(a good non-technical book on the > subject is "Remembered Wellness" by Herbet Benson).There is no doubt > that much of the reason why medications work(as well as psychotherapy) > is due to the placebo effect.So it is likely that both scientology, > which frankly is in many respects a form of psychotherapy,and > medication help a significant # of people because it gives them hope > which then leads to changes in behavior and mood.These changes might > also result in changes in brain chemistry. The placebo effect has > been shown repeatedly to potentially exert profound effects on > physiology.As to whether there is any therapeutic (vs placebo)effect > for medications my clinical expereince is that there is for a subset > of depressed patients especially individuals who have major depressive > disorder.Kevin
Kirsch requested the complete files on the six most widely prescribed antidepressants approved between 1987 and 1999: Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor, Serzone, and Celexa drugs that together had $8.3 billion in worldwide sales in 2002. Within a month, he had an even less drug-friendly story than the one told in the journals. In "The Emperor's New Drugs," published in the July 2002 issue of the American Psychological Association's Prevention & Treatment, Kirsch's team presented their findings: Of the 47 trials conducted for the six drugs, only 20 of them showed any measurable advantage of drugs over placebos, a much lower number than turns up in published research. This was not entirely unexpected "publication bias" has long been known to be a problem in assessing the effectiveness of drugs and Kirsch is quick to point out that even these meager numbers "leave no doubt that there is a difference between drug and placebo. But I was surprised at how small the difference was in clinical terms. The studies all used the same measure" the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the nearly universal way clinicians assess a patient's level of depression "so it was easy to see how much clinical improvement there really was." And there really wasn't much at all: The average patient on drugs improved by about 10 points on the 52-point Hamilton, while a placebo patient improved by a little more than eight. "A two-point difference on the Hamilton it's just clinically meaningless. Trivial," Kirsch says. "You can get that from having an improvement in sleep patterns, and if one of the side effects of the drugs is to induce drowsiness, the whole difference could be right there." (Indeed, critics say the Hamilton is skewed toward physical symptoms of depression, those most likely to be affected by medication.) Full article: http://astrocyte-design.com/pseudoscience/mother_jones.html To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
