[lbo-talk] SSRIs

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Fri Nov 18 12:44:40 PST 2005


On Fri, 18 Nov 2005, andie nachgeborenen wrote:


> Depends on with what. Manic depression or bipolar
> disorder is totally impervious to talk therapy. The
> only thing talk therapy can do with bipolar patients
> is to help keep them on their meds. Whatever the deep
> cause of bipolar disorder, once you got it, drugs are
> the only thing that work. See, e,g., Goodwin &
> Jamison, Manic Depressive Illness, Oxford 199?, older
> but still authoritative, a fat treatise.

Must be old data. There are a number of studies over the past 10 years that have demonstrated that drug therapy combined with cognitive behavioral therapy is a more effective treatment for bipolar disorder than drug therapy alone (e.g., Perry, Tarrier, Morriss, McCarthy, & Limb, 1999). Sure, drug therapy is helpful, but the "talk" therapy is more useful than you suggest.

Miles



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