PDocs Attempt to Explain the Placebo Dilemma

This article is quite long but very revealing.  It seems that Pdocs are explaining the placebo dilemma by saying that the patients are either "motivated or not motivated" to get better. 

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1946385

Some excerpts:

"While the most effective prescribers who provided active drug (antidepressant) had the best results, it was also true that the most effective one-third of prescribers had better outcomes with placebos than the least effective one-third of prescribers had with active drug. This suggests that how the doctor prescribes is actually more important than what the doctor prescribes!"

"Beitman and colleagues11 found, in a placebo-controlled trial, that patients who received a benzodiazepine for anxiety and who were highly motivated to change had the most robust response. However, placebo recipients who were highly motivated to change had a greater reduction in anxiety than patients who took the active drug but were less ready to change. Readiness to change was found to be the single most powerful determinant of treatment effectiveness—even more potent than type of therapy (ie, active vs placebo)."

Maybe if we motivate ourselves enough we can pretend that these pills didn't "mess" up our lives. 

Christopher

Wouldnt that be wonderful!

I am going to wake up tomorrow and be VERY motivated to believe I am 100% healed.