Posted by SLS on January 14, 2007, at 7:05:23
In reply to Re: Do people feel medications help or mask sympto, posted by laima on January 13, 2007, at 16:04:31
> I think the drawbacks of masking would be evident if and when the meds konk out. They do konk out for a lot of people, so real cures would be worth pursuing.
But I don't think that the fact that meds konk out is de facto proof that they only mask symptoms. Such can also occur if symptom relief is the result of remission of the illness itself. Note that remission does not equate to cure. As with so many other illnesses, antidepressant treatment can produce a complete remission rather than a partial mitigation of selected symptoms. And as is also true with other illnesses, treatments sometimes fail to remain effective indefinitely, in which case there is a relapse into illness. This failure to produce an indefinite remission does not make the remission any less complete. It does not all of a sudden warrant us to redefine the remission as symptom-masking.
Yes, a cure is worth pursuing, but so is remission. Too many people experience incomplete responses to treatment with residual symptoms. This is not good enough. I encourage people to continue to explore treatment refinements until they find something that hits closer to the target and brings about remission. It is my impression from the results of the STAR*D study that at least 66% of people can attain remission after only 4 drug trials. Think of the possible combinations of drugs we have to work with and the number of trials that represents. I think the odds are in one's favor that they will eventually find something that works well if they are persevering.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:721825
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070113/msgs/722139.html