Posted by katekite on July 31, 2002, at 17:13:11
In reply to Whom do you trust? » katekite, posted by Anyuser on July 31, 2002, at 12:54:37
You raise good points. For all we know, I could be pharmrep arguing with myself to increase publicity... we'd go back and forth a few rounds and 'I' would finally say I was going to get on Lexapro. Some of the personal experiences here could really be drug reps. It's hard to know.
Here's what I trust: my own carefully chosen (recommended by other doctors I like) psychiatrist who never says he categorically "know's" something that is clearly impossible to know. And I also tend to trust studies that are meta-analyses: studies that are reviews of many other studies. They are good, I think, in that they look at many studies performed under many circumstances with all kinds of different funding and they determine an overall efficacy and side effect profile. I look at the journal title too: I tend to trust western european and north american journals most. I tend not to put much weight in studies other than in people. Then after that, if I'm going to try a drug, I look it up here to see what everyone's personal experience is so I'm not surprised and so if there is something new (like effexor withdrawal wasn't known about for a while) I will be up on it. So that's my attempt to rationalize trust.
It's a difficult field and even harder on the internet. My husband looks at me like that occasionally too when I quote something from psychobabble.
kate
poster:katekite
thread:110614
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020731/msgs/114679.html