Posted by SLS on July 20, 2005, at 2:07:40
In reply to About my post..and Suicide..., posted by med_empowered on July 19, 2005, at 17:45:30
The apparent "weakness" of placebo controlled studies arises from the incredibly high rate of placebo response seen in these trials - 30-35%. If you drop the placebo responders, you get a success rate of antidepressants that is truly impressive - 65-75%.
Some investigators have studied the nature of the placebo response, its course longitudinally, and how it affects the statistical power of results.
Here's a quicky that uses the same citations as one that would have us believe that antidepressants are barely more effective than placebo. I wrote about this in another thread today, but I don't remember where it is.
Counterpoint:Clinical trials of antidepressant medications are producing meaningless results
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/183/2/102
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:530123
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050718/msgs/530499.html