Posted by jedi on February 9, 2010, at 23:27:59
In reply to Re: newsweek: antidepressants all placebo effect, posted by Joe Schmoe on February 9, 2010, at 20:01:40
Of course the placebo effect is real. I've felt it myself when just starting a new medication. But in the case of antidepressants, that is not the true effect. I agree with Joe. An AD response that I have to wait 4 weeks in hell to achieve is not a placebo effect.
Anybody, with serious major depression, who has felt Nardil kick in, knows what I am talking about. It takes time, but when it works, it can be like flipping a switch. This medication has saved my life more than once. Anybody that tells me it is a placebo, better have been in that fetal position on the floor, suffering the unbearable psychic pain that major depression causes.
This is not a game we are all playing. Any illness that is painful enough for a person to consider taking their own life, is right up there with the worse of the purely physical ailments. It takes more than a placebo to break that cycle.
Be Well,
Jedi> I think the peculiar thing about the idea of ADs being just placebo effect is, why do they take 2-4 weeks to start working?
>
> If it was just belief, wouldn't it work right away?
>
> Does the placebo effect take 2-4 weeks to work in studies relating to drugs for other things like irritable bowel syndrome?
poster:jedi
thread:935850
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100204/msgs/936541.html