Posted by joslynn on October 20, 2006, at 15:49:30 [reposted on October 22, 2006, at 16:53:45 | original URL]
In reply to Re:withdrawl comments redirected » musky, posted by SLS on October 7, 2006, at 2:51:49
Musky, I think the objection is that the subject line made it sound like it was a how-to-withdraw article, instead of an article about the placebo effect.
By the way, for those of us who have been severely depressed, I wouldn't take the placebo results to mean ADs don't work, because the article says that severely depressed people aren't necessarily studied. I was one of those people who did come into treatment "via the ER," so this part of the article makes me not take any of the placebo results too seriously:
"You also might not make any progress if you waited around for severely depressed people to test drugs on. 'The problem with antidepressant studies,' according to Klein, 'is that anything that can be confused with ordinary unhappiness gets in' -- which means that subjects in clinical trials are insufficiently depressed, too close to normal to show dramatic improvement. Price, who has conducted clinical trials of antidepressants for 25 years, points out that recruitment techniques like the one that attracted Janis Schonfeld to UCLA can lead to a skewed sample. 'If you go out and advertise in the newspaper for depressed people,' says Price, 'you are going to get less ill people than if you are taking people who are brought in via the emergency room.'"
(end quote)
When I was depressed, I didn't even read the newspaper. I was too tired from not sleeping, too faint from not eating, and too busy trying just to survive and not kill myself. It's hard to read the newspaper when you are always a.)crying or b.)fighting like crazy not to jump out the window.
I would like to be off meds one day and applaud people who can go off them. I also applaud people who go off them, realize they need them, and go back on them. With three severe depressions in my background, it's a decision I need to make carefully. Right now, I feel the risk is too great to take.
I think the only reason I would go off meds was if I decided to get pregant. Then there is another life to consider.
If you were just put on meds for a little stress or sleep problems or whatever (I don't know your background) then you may not need them and that is great, then you shouldn't be on them.
But some people here were severely depressed, so it's a more difficult decision for us.
poster:joslynn
thread:696808
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061020/msgs/696820.html