placebo

More about Antidepressants and Placebos

February 27, 2012

The debate is over.  Antidepressants are only very marginally more effective than placebos.  And yet the “depression-is-an-illness” lobby continues to grasp for straws. Fiona Godlee, editor of the British Medical Journal, recently cited “evidence” of the efficacy of antidepressants.  For a critique of the Godlee article go to Duncan Double’s website “Critical Psychiatry.” Surprise finding! [...]

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Drugs, Placebos, and Life

August 23, 2010

I have recently read a very interesting book by Irving Kirsch, PhD. It’s called The Emperor’s New Drugs, and the central theme of the work is that antidepressants are only very slightly more effective than placebos (i.e. sugar pills), and that the difference is not clinically significant. The logic is cogent and the research is [...]

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