Posted by SLS on April 8, 2006, at 10:33:09
In reply to You just know I have an opinion, right? » SLS, posted by Racer on April 6, 2006, at 12:57:07
Hi Racer.
I'm sorry I didn't get around to responding to your post. All I can say is that you hit the target better than I did.
- Scott> Lucky for you, I don't have time to go into it right now...
>
> Briefly, though, I think there are a couple of factors that are probably coming into play:
>
> 1. CBT probably is part of it, although I'm gonna back away from offering my opinions on that. I'd ask how long after the end of CBT treatment the assessments were done, and I'd look very, very closely at the pre-treatment baseline. Oh, and I'd do another follow up study a year or two later, to see how much LASTING benefit CBT had.
>
> 2. With SSRIs so heavily advertised to consumers, and a few changes in the world that really do affect functioning for a lot of people, I think taking a pill seemed perfectly reasonable to a lot of people for a long time. This is where my longer opinion comes in, but it's basically that a lot of the people on SSRIs in the past decade have really and truly needed non-medication interventions. They needed the things that talk therapy -- actually, more like coaching in life skills -- can provide.
>
> 3. I do think there's a wider range of what's being called depression in these studies. The studies I've read have been pretty consistent on the matter, really: for MILD depression, talk therapy can be as effective as medication. For moderate depression, talk therapy can be pretty helpful, as can medications, but both together are optimal. For severe depression, though, all the studies I've seen have consistently said that medications really are required, but talk therapy can be a very valuable adjunct.
>
> Then again, you know I have opinions... So many, in fact, that I have to give them away to all who'll take them...
poster:SLS
thread:629584
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060408/msgs/630529.html