Detached9

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42930-2002May6.html" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42930-2002May6.html</a>

<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/05/1019441459072.html" target="_blank">http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/05/1019441459072.html</a>

What the? Placebos work just as well or sometimes work even better at alleviating depression than SSRIs (according to the studies mentioned in the articles).

[ May 24, 2002: Message edited by: Detached9 ]</p>

lynx

just a guess, but i'd say placebos wouldn't work at all if you really needed SSRIs. some people do - many don't.

lynx

abe smith

[Try agen.] :That this-date newspaper article had more info than that; it was a report {How substantial?] about treating depression[s] by various means: drugs {Prozac, Valium etc}, talk-therapy, placebos. READ the newspaper articles. The implication or explicit {= a noun, here} is that costly lifelong *drugging* for the benefit of the US [legal] drugmakers & drug-pushers is not, or may not be necessary; because shortterm {16 week} talk-therapy may be equally effective. The placebo-effect discussed alongside this is less emphatically supported. For some of us old fogies, who think forcing "patients" to become drug-addicts is STYUPID, this appears to be good news. But after all the great American pill-popper population LOVE taking pills, and bragging about that. Go to the today-newspaper reports anyhow. Read cum grano salis. Abe

LogicMania

Interesting idea there. So what you're saying is that a lot of people on these prescription medicines really are not suffering from clinical depression but are just a bunch of complainers?

Perhaps people who really do suffer from depressoin could conceivably get better? The brain does work in some complex mannerisms. Sheer comfort in the idea that somethings working can do a lot in the physiology of the brain.

lynx

not what i said at all. there is a difference between clinical and situational depression (according to my neurologist). clinical is the chemical imbalance that needs the SSRI. situational is just as real (not complainers) but is not due to a chemical imbalance. the two are difficult to distinguish and are sometimes mistaken for each other and the wrong treatment is given.

i'm no doctor, just a patient, and this is what i've been told.

LogicMania

Ah, ok that makes a lot more sense. I was not aware of the distinction between clinical and situational depression. I thought both situational and clinical depression (as I had thought not only refering to chemical imbalances) were both put under the term clinical depression.

LogicMania

I didn't see the acronym in the article, what does SSRI stand for?

lynx

ack - technical question.

selective seratonin reuptake inhibitor. (i looked it up )

Detached9

Most anti-depressants are SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), they try to rebalance the chemical serotonin by blocking off some of the reuptake centers (I could be slightly wrong with the function of SSRIs, someone correct me if I am).

[ May 26, 2002: Message edited by: Detached9 ]</p>

Pseudonymph

Hmmm...anyone remember my thoughts on this not too long ago?

I have frequently found that the majority of depressed people are not indeed depressed. Indeed, they are only looking for an easy solution to their problems. Pretty sad...

I have made these conclusions through research, which I have done mostly related to schoolwork, and some on my own, talking to various doctors.

I feel that this is becoming an epidemic, not easily solved.

You cannot tell me that you do not see a pattern devolping in modern american medicine.
The focus as of late has been, for the most part, aesthetic, or for our mental "health."

And yes...please don't flame me saying I dont realize that some people need these meds...yes I agree. Some people really do need these meds, and for those people I am glad they exist.

For the most part though, people seek these out because it is much easier to dope yourself up then to face your problems and try to actually solve them.

And again, please, no flames about how insensitive I am. I already stated that I realize the need exists.

<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=57&t=000192" target="_blank">this</a> is the thread I started earlier about this same thing...it has a few more thoughts on the subject.


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edited to add some food for thought from that first article...

See my point? for the most part...it's all in the mind.

[ May 26, 2002: Message edited by: SirenSpeak ]</p>