Posted by zazenduck on April 6, 2006, at 12:03:46
In reply to Drugs versus Psychotherapy - Backlash?, posted by SLS on April 6, 2006, at 9:43:54
> All of a sudden, psychotherapy is as effective as drug therapy for treating depression!
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> That's right.
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> Just look at the medical literature.
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> Less than a decade ago, nearly all of the double-blind studies demonstrated a clear advantage to drug therapy over psychotherapy for treating depression.
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> Now, it is difficult to find such studies. Most of the current literature claims equal effectiveness between the two modes of treatment.
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> How can this be?
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> Can it be that the emergence of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) as the psychotherapeutic treatment of choice has drastically improved the response rate to psychotherapy?++yes I would think that was the most obvious reason
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> Have current investigations defined depression in a different way than they did ten years ago?++I think depression has been defined down by the relentless advertising for ADs. The actual definition may remain exactly the same but people would be more likely to endorse the various criteria because they have conditioned to look for this kind of distress and label it depression. The actual definition may be the same but I think it is different in the mind of the potential subjects...less functionally impaired people may be seeking treatment now.
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> Have the rating methods or measurement standards that define treatment success changed?++Most of the ratings are subjective and remain that way I think. I think more information about others who have not done well with ADs on the internet for example may have decreased the potential for positive placebo response for medications.
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> Is there a backlash against using drugs to treat depression to be found in the field of psychiatric investigation?++Are you suggesting some bias unconscious or otherwise in the design of the studies?
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> What's going on?++I don't know :) What do you think?
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>
poster:zazenduck
thread:629584
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060403/msgs/629647.html