Mahalia Freed ND

The Power of Placebo

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 | Articles

Reframing and contextualizing research on prescription antidepressants

Dr Mahalia Freed, ND

PlaceboPowerDNC

So, the jig is up: An international meta-analysis on prescription antidepressants conclusively found them to be as effective as placebo (Kirsch & Sapirstein 1998.) Over a decade later, the hush-up is getting frayed around the edges, as evidenced by the recent article in Newsweek, titled, “The Depressing News About Antidepressants” (http://www.newsweek.com/id/232781).

According to Kirsch’s findings, which were confirmed again in 2008, careful analysis of all eligible studies on antidepressants reveals that prescription antidepressants are clinically as effective as placebo for mild to moderate depression (Kirsch & Sapirstein 1998; Kirsch et al 2008). These findings do not mean prescription antidepressants are “not effective”, only that the placebo effect is powerful, and the drugs’ perceived effectiveness may be attributable to the power of our belief in the medicine, rather than the medicine itself.

As I have written before, your beliefs are powerful in directing your healing. › Continue reading

Tags: Beliefs, Depression