Placebo: A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient’s expectation to get well [from the Latin word meaning “I shall please.”]
Professor Irving Kirsch, Associate Director of the Program for Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School, has this to say, “The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people.”
Watch a video interview of Professor Kirsch speaking about his research on the CBS News program 60 Minutes here: http://www.psychsearch.net/psych_news/psych-drugs/the-placebo-effect/
How did Professor Kirsch do his research? He filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain unpublished clinical trial data and found that, when combining results with published data, the various antidepressants were no better than dummy pills. As 60 Minutes notes, Kirsch is “dropping a bomb†on a big business – some $11 billion in annual sales and no cures.
Read the full 60 Minutes transcript by clicking here.
What can you do about this tremendous waste of health care dollars? Watch the CCHR DVD documentaries and show them to your family, friends, and associates; write your local, state and federal officials and express your opinion; volunteer or donate to CCHR St. Louis so that we can continue to make a difference against psychiatric fraud and abuse.