Posted by Larry Hoover on May 16, 2006, at 11:44:42
In reply to Re: Statistical question on SSRIs - ADDENDUM » Larry Hoover, posted by Squiggles on May 16, 2006, at 10:58:16
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> > IMHO, the problem has never been the drugs. It has always been the people who were let down by other people. We haven't taken the illness seriously enough. Don't forget, fifty years ago, nobody talked about mental illness at all. We built great buildings, and populated them with people who otherwise virtually ceased to exist. We haven't come too far from that period of great stigma. Don't kid yourself.
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> That's an interesting point. It suggests that
> there are some causal factors outside the
> statistical studies of medication efficacy.Suggests? It is most certainly the case. The act of creating a clinical study creates an illusion. No real life person is treated as they treat people in study populations. Efficacy itself is a construct.
> > If there was a failing, it was that we believed the marketing agents. The salesmen. Scientists knew all along that there was nothing so special about SSRIs. But once Prozac got onto the cover of Time magazine, this false image of Happy Pills was embedded in the culture. Accountants for the drug companies thought that was a good idea, too. Money poured in. The guys on Wall St. weren't about to kill the golden goose.
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> It was also the golden drug reviewed as the representative of all SSRIs, and yet had a higher suicidal profile than the others; correct me if i am wrong on this.I don't think it does. It was simply the most examined. Suicidality of the tricyclics is higher. It doesn't matter, though. It is a class effect of pharmacological treatment of mood disorders. If you're going to treat depression with drugs, you get this effect. You manage that effect effectively, or you don't.
We got rid of asylums. They used to be state of the art. Icepick lobotomies. Insulin shock. What people need is care.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:640557
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060515/msgs/644717.html