Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Take Two Skittles And Call Me In The Morning

Further evidence that mental illness is only in your mind:

A new analysis has found that in the majority of trials conducted by drug companies in recent decades, sugar pills have done as well as -- or better than -- antidepressants.

What's more, the sugar pills, or placebos, cause profound changes in the same areas of the brain affected by the medicines, according to research published last week. One researcher has ruefully concluded that a higher percentage of depressed patients get better on placebos today than 20 years ago.

Analysis of 96 antidepressant trials between 1979 and 1996 showed that in 52 percent of them, the effect of the antidepressant could not be distinguished from that of the placebo. The makers of Prozac had to run five trials to obtain two that were positive, and the makers of Paxil and Zoloft had to run even more.

Considering psychiatrists and the mental health industry are just that -- an industry -- this development is not surprising.

This illustrates the market:

The number of doctor visits for depression rose from 14 million in 1987 to almost 25 million last year. Medications were prescribed for nine in 10 patients.

Just think of all that cash pouring in.

What is even more interesting about these psycho-pharmacology pills is that even the makers do not know how they work.

In light of the amazing efficacy of sugar pills, it seems these prescription drugs may not "work" at all.

It may just be people's belief that they work effecting the changes.

What is known is these medications subject patients to scary lists of side effects -- some potentially lethal.

They mess with the brain -- most in a similar fashion as cocaine.

If a sugar pill is just as effective -- why risk death, cancer, weight gain, shingles and so on???

Wouldn't it be cheaper and healthier to pop some green M&Ms?

The Washington Post article on the research -- from which I clipped the quotes above -- can be found here.

posted by Bohica at 3:42 PM