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Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect?
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Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_16...%3BcbsCarousel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zihdr...layer_embedded
What do you guys think?
A Harvard scientist says the drugs used to treat depression are effective, but for many, it's not the active ingredient that's making people feel better. It's the placebo effect.
Watch the Segment below.
Watch the Segment below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zihdr...layer_embedded
(CBS News) Do antidepressants work? Since the introduction of Prozac in the 1980s, prescriptions for antidepressants have soared 400 percent, with 17 million Americans currently taking some form of the drug. But how much good is the medication itself doing? "The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people," says Harvard scientist Irving Kirsch. Will Kirsch's research, and the work of others, change the $11.3 billion antidepressant industry? Lesley Stahl investigates.
The following script is from "Treating Depression" which aired on Feb. 19, 2012. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Richard Bonin, producer.
The medical community is at war - battling over the scientific research and writings of a psychologist named Irving Kirsch. The fight is about antidepressants, and Kirsch's questioning of whether they work.
Kirsch's views are of vital interest to the 17 million Americans who take the drugs, including children as young as six and to the pharmaceutical industry that brings in $11.3 billion a year selling them.
Irving Kirsch is the associate director of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School, and he says that his research challenges the very effectiveness of antidepressants.
Irving Kirsch: The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people.
Lesley Stahl: So you're saying if they took a sugar pill, they'd have the same effect?
Irving Kirsch: They'd have almost as large an effect and whatever difference there would be would be clinically insignificant.
Stahl: But people are getting better taking antidepressants. I know them.
Kirsch: Oh, yes.
Stahl: We all know them.
Kirsch: People get better when they take the drug. But it's not the chemical ingredients of the drug that are making them better. It's largely the placebo effect.
Irving Kirsch's specialty has been the study of the placebo effect: the taking of a dummy pill without any medication in it that creates an expectation of healing that is so powerful, symptoms are actually alleviated.
[Kirsch: This is the placebo response...]
Kirsch, who's been studying placebos for 36 years, says "sugar pills" can work miracles.
Kirsch: Placebos are great for treating a number of disorders: irritable bowel syndrome, repetitive strain injuries, ulcers, Parkinson's disease.
Even traumatic knee pain. In this clinical trial some patients with osteoarthritis underwent knee surgery. While others had their knees merely opened and then sewn right back up.
Kirsch: And here's what happened. In terms of walking and climbing, the people who got the placebo actually did better--
Stahl: Come on.
The following script is from "Treating Depression" which aired on Feb. 19, 2012. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Richard Bonin, producer.
The medical community is at war - battling over the scientific research and writings of a psychologist named Irving Kirsch. The fight is about antidepressants, and Kirsch's questioning of whether they work.
Kirsch's views are of vital interest to the 17 million Americans who take the drugs, including children as young as six and to the pharmaceutical industry that brings in $11.3 billion a year selling them.
Irving Kirsch is the associate director of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School, and he says that his research challenges the very effectiveness of antidepressants.
Irving Kirsch: The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people.
Lesley Stahl: So you're saying if they took a sugar pill, they'd have the same effect?
Irving Kirsch: They'd have almost as large an effect and whatever difference there would be would be clinically insignificant.
Stahl: But people are getting better taking antidepressants. I know them.
Kirsch: Oh, yes.
Stahl: We all know them.
Kirsch: People get better when they take the drug. But it's not the chemical ingredients of the drug that are making them better. It's largely the placebo effect.
Irving Kirsch's specialty has been the study of the placebo effect: the taking of a dummy pill without any medication in it that creates an expectation of healing that is so powerful, symptoms are actually alleviated.
[Kirsch: This is the placebo response...]
Kirsch, who's been studying placebos for 36 years, says "sugar pills" can work miracles.
Kirsch: Placebos are great for treating a number of disorders: irritable bowel syndrome, repetitive strain injuries, ulcers, Parkinson's disease.
Even traumatic knee pain. In this clinical trial some patients with osteoarthritis underwent knee surgery. While others had their knees merely opened and then sewn right back up.
Kirsch: And here's what happened. In terms of walking and climbing, the people who got the placebo actually did better--
Stahl: Come on.
What do you guys think?
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placebo effect is a very powerful thing. i am a psychology student and i can attest to the power our mind has over our physical well being when we think we are getting the drugs we "need". personally when i see research that demonstrates a negligible difference between placebo effect and actual effect of the drug i immediately think that the people have been misdiagnosed. clinical depression is a crippling mental disorder and i believe that it has a high rate of misdiagnosis considering all the criteria that has been outlined by the experts in the DSM IV for a person to really have depression. this is why a personally dislike the field of psychiatry, because their first line of defense is drug therapy and doctors get lazy with their diagnoses. in reality around 50% of people wouldn't even respond to antidepressants which supports the theory that those who "get better" actually do so because of the placebo effect. don't get me wrong their are people that really need the drugs to counter balance chemical deficiencies in their brains but i have to say i must agree with doctor Kirsch on this one
on a side note as an interesting fact, the only real "cure" for clinical depression that doesn't respond to drug treatments is electroshock therapy aka electroconvulsive therapy, yeah that one...
on a side note as an interesting fact, the only real "cure" for clinical depression that doesn't respond to drug treatments is electroshock therapy aka electroconvulsive therapy, yeah that one...
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Interesting. The conclusion I got from the story is that in cases of mild to moderate depression that antidepressants act mostly as a placebo effect. From my own personal experience, I think antidepressants do change your body's chemical makeup. For moderately depressed people this may be overboard. I like UK's NHS approach though, it seems way more cost effective to have people exercise. It's very "American" of us to want a pill to solve all our problems and the pharmaceutical companies are loving it.
