Posted by SLS on July 16, 2006, at 6:13:38
In reply to Re: couldn't have said it better myself, posted by linkadge on July 15, 2006, at 21:43:43
> >It seems to me that a study with no placebo arm >is going to have a much higher percentage of >placebo responders than one without, simply >because everyone knows for sure they are getting >a real drug and have higher expectations.
> Bingo.
You guys are speculating. I think you are both wrong. I think the degree of placebo response is dependent on the selection criteria. I have already cited a paper regarding this issue.
> In addition, there aren't too many studies that follow these individuals to see if their treatments actually continue to work down the road.How long do you think they should be followed for? Is the STAR*D design sufficient?
This is usually the ultimate test. Its easy to get a response with all the bells a whistles, but when the support leaves, and all you've got is a drug, relapse rates are high.
Is this speculation? What are the statistics?
Certainly psychotherapy will enhance one's chances of getting well and remaining well. There are numbers on this. However, I have not seen the numbers on relapse rates once supportive psychotherapy is withdrawn. Let's see them.
> I relapsed within 2 weeks of leaving the hospital on a high dose of zoloft.
That would be considered a placebo effect if you began to "respond" during the first two weeks according to some researchers. You might not really have been responding to the drug. Placebo responders do not remain in remission for very long compared to true responders. You can look at the work of Frederick Quitkin regarding this.
> I wasn't quite sure if I got better because of the zoloft, or the fact that the hospital cafeteria served really good bacon.
It was likely neither.
> It is easy enough to ramp people up to a high dose of antidepressants to get some initial responses, but with the growing information bank regarding AD poop out we could add to the statistics.What exactly is that bank? Where can we find these statistics?
> I read some statistic stating that ~30% of AD responces end up pooping. So maybe only 35% of people actually get any long term benifit.
Cite it. Let us see if they separate out placebo responders first. If they don't, the statistics are worthless.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:662854
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060709/msgs/667441.html