Posted by Dinah on December 28, 2011, at 9:19:01
In reply to Re: Antidepressants, Talk Theraphy, Placebos All Same, posted by SLS on December 27, 2011, at 21:24:32
I think I'm going to find all studies that make no attempt to differentiate between various forms of depression as fundamentally flawed.
There's a difference between depression secondary to relationship problems, or life problems, and depression secondary to anxiety, and melancholic depression that appears without life stressors.
It's like doing a study with a triptan and finding it was no more effective than placebo for a good number of headache sufferers. Of course it isn't. If it's not a migraine, a triptan won't work at all. If it's a caffeine withdrawal headache it would likely respond best to medications with caffeine. If it's a tension headache it would respond best to something else.
We're nowhere near as advanced as headache studies.
If what this does is tell primary care doctors that handing a pill to someone complaining of symptoms of depression, I'm all for it. It could well be that they need help in changing or coping with life stressors. If it tells psychiatrists to look into things more closely before handing out a Prozac, that's great.
If what they're doing is saying that in general antidepressants are no better than placebos, I think they're doing us a disservice. And I'm saying that as someone who found antidepressants worse than placebos. They weren't the right medication for *me*.
poster:Dinah
thread:1005682
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111226/msgs/1005707.html