Are placebos more powerful than drugs? Today’s Washington Post looks into the medication of America:
“After thousands of studies, hundreds of millions of prescriptions and tens of billions of dollars in sales, two things are certain about pills that treat depression: antidepressants like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft work. And so do sugar pills. 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…The new research may shed light on findings such as those from a trial last month that compared the herbal remedy St. John’s wort against Zoloft. St. John’s wort fully cured 24 percent of the depressed people who received it, and Zoloft cured 25 percent–but the placebo fully cured 32 percent.”
Two years ago, The New York Times Magazine examined, in fascinating detail, the ways and means of the placebo effect.
