Do antidepressants really work to treat depression? A new, six year meta-analysis amalgamating hundreds of the best performed clinical trials has demonstrated that antidepressants are better than placebo. The study, published in the Lancet, showed modest effects, positively affecting about 60% of people treated. Drugs varied in efficacy, ranging between about one third to twice as effective as placebo. What […]
Different Way to Treat Depression
Depression: Failure to Learn Depression stops you. You can’t start. You can’t think. You want to rest but can’t sleep. Simple acts become unendurable. You retreat, then hide. You can’t burden others with what you are now – stuck. In previous centuries personality changes so abrupt led depressed people to be burned at the stake. Things […]
The Future History of Drugs
What does happen to drugs following public release? A recent JAMA study combining researchers from the U.S. and France looked at the “future” of FDA approved drugs from 2001 to 2010. It found almost a third (32%) experienced a “post market safety event” over eleven years. Only three out of 222 drugs were withdrawn from use. […]
Now – You Must Use Drugs
The health insurance companies know exactly how you should practice. These days, despite the admonitions of Nancy Reagen, they are pointedly telling you to use drugs – and quite peeved when you don’t. A recent postal arrival from a major insurer arrived on properly forbidding stationery. The declaration – it was incumbent that I put patient […]
Are Anti-Depressant Tests Worth the Money?
“This test will improve your choice of antidepressant by at least 50%” the salesman claims. I’m skeptical. I ask him how much it costs. Given his evasiveness, I ask five times before I get an answer: “Two thousand dollars. But don’t worry. Insurance will pay for it.” Sure. And if that do, a very big […]