[lbo-talk] Debate Resumes on the Safety of Depression's Wonder Drugs

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Thu Aug 7 10:33:56 PDT 2003


On Wed, 6 Aug 2003, mike larkin wrote:


> There may be a risk of suicide among children, but my
> guess is that untold more people have been saved from
> suicide and substance abuse by the SSRI's. Me, for
> example.
>

I know this is a common claim, but at the individual level, it's impossible to verify. The problem here is placebo effects: in any one case, it's impossible to untangle the effects of positive expectations about the therapy from the actual effects of the therapy itself. --And placebo effects are not trivial for SSRIs: 50-70% of the positive therapeutic effects of SSRIs at the group level can be attributed to placebo effects, as assessed in double-blind placebo-drug trials. This doesn't mean Prozac is useless; it just means the success of Prozac therapy is substantially improved by positive expectations about the drug.

Miles



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