Posted by blueboy on August 17, 2008, at 10:03:34
In reply to Placebo in Psychiatric Clinical Trials, posted by SLS on August 13, 2008, at 7:40:34
I think the "mental magic" aspect is very low. Doctors have traditionally thought that the person was making himself sick and that a placebo made him think he was being cured. This may be true in some cases.
However, I think a more realistic explanation, especially in mental disease treatment, is spontaneous remission. Heck, I had a huge polyp in my sinus that the doctor had scheduled for expensive and painful surgery. But it dried up and fell off, and I blew it out my nose, before he operated!
Especially in diagnoses of major depressive episode and bipolar disorder, spontaneous remission is the rule rather than the exception. I believe other diagnoses would fall under this rule, such as SAD and event-caused depression such as post-partum depression.
I started taking a new drug (Lamictal) about two months ago and have started feeling better and sleeping better. My pdoc said, "it's too early to tell if it's really helping, or if it's just a natural cycle."
So, in such cases, I think there is a basal remission rate without treatment. IMHO, the testing companies should make a more accurate diagnosis than "depression", as some types of depression have a very high incidence of spontaneous remission and others do not.
poster:blueboy
thread:845869
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080814/msgs/846806.html