--- Comments below:
Snipe
> Benson illustrates via exhaustive case studies and anonymous
examples the power of what has been etc
>
>
> The book doesn't appear to be about placebo effects of drugs, but
> about mind body effects of parayer, meditation and "remembering
wellness"
>
> And doesn't appear to have anyting to do with placebo effects of SSRIs.
Annon,thanks for correction about book title.However Benson does
talk about the medications and the placebo effect if only briefly
because it is common practice to use a placebo to test the effect-
iveness of medical treatments.The point of Bensons book is to propose
that the placebo effect is actually the evocation of the mind-body's
capacity to heal itself.Infact much of the book is a review of
research findings which show the power of the placebo effect.He agrues
that rathering than ignoring placebo effects(which is what typically
happens in medical research)medicine ought to begin to recognize the
therapeutic importance of the placebo effect which he calls remenbered
wellness.One factor which he states plays a role in evoking the
placebo response or remembered wellness is faith.Others have used the
concept of hope(eg Jerome Frank).As far as the relationship of SSRI's
to the placebo effect there have been numerous scientific articles
discussing this(controversial)issue.In particular "Listening
to Prozac but Hearing Placebo:A Meta-Analysis of Anti-depressant
Medication" in Prevention and Treatment 1998 by Kirsch and Saperstien.
This journal published several responses to this initial article which
discuss in some depth both sides of this issue.One thing for sure is
that there still is no universal consensus re the efficacy of SRRI's.
As I have said for what it's worth I believe that SRRI's do have a
therapeutic effect beyound the placebo effect for some
people.Something I think Benson himself would agree with.Kevin
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