Active placebos versus antidepressants for depression

Treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations with transcranial magnetic stimulation in a patient with psychotic major depression: One-year follow-up

“…A recent meta-analysis (Schutter, 2009) including 1164 patients with MD (30 sham-controlled studies) resulted in a pooled effect size of 0.39. Although moderate, this effect size is similar to those seen in placebo-controlled trials with medications (e.g., Moncrieff et al, 2004). Furthermore, another meta-analytic study (Gross et al, 2007) comparing recent versus earlier rTMS trials showed a substantial difference between the estimated effect sizes ( d =0.76 for more recent studies and d =0.35 for older trials), indicating that recent refinements of rTMS protocols are leading to improved therapeutic efficacy.…”

Treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations with transcranial magnetic stimulation in a patient with psychotic major depression: One-year follow-up

“…A recent meta-analysis (Schutter, 2009) including 1164 patients with MD (30 sham-controlled studies) resulted in a pooled effect size of 0.39. Although moderate, this effect size is similar to those seen in placebo-controlled trials with medications (e.g., Moncrieff et al, 2004). Furthermore, another meta-analytic study (Gross et al, 2007) comparing recent versus earlier rTMS trials showed a substantial difference between the estimated effect sizes ( d =0.76 for more recent studies and d =0.35 for older trials), indicating that recent refinements of rTMS protocols are leading to improved therapeutic efficacy.…”

Bright green light treatment of depression for older adults [ISRCTN69400161]

“…Bright green light treatment did not increase symptom complaints in the 60–79 year old age group and caused only negligible adverse effects. Although no statistically significant advantages of the 1,200 lux green light were found, the trend in self-ratings favored the green light, and the effect sizes on self-rating depression scales were comparable to those in many trials of 8+ weeks of antidepressant drugs [ 32 ]. Most antidepressants drug trials are planned on a larger scale to achieve significance even with small effect sizes (which may be all that the antidepressant achieves).…”

Does long term use of psychiatric drugs cause more harm than good?

“…A Cochrane review of tricyclic antidepressants included only trials that had atropine in the placebo to prevent unblinding because of the conspicuous side effects of the drugs. This review did not find any meaningful effect 4 ; the effect corresponded to only 1.3 points on the Hamilton scale, 1 and the smallest effect that can be perceived is 5-6 points. 16 …”

Treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations with transcranial magnetic stimulation in a patient with psychotic major depression: One-year follow-up

“…A recent meta-analysis (Schutter, 2009) including 1164 patients with MD (30 sham-controlled studies) resulted in a pooled effect size of 0.39. Although moderate, this effect size is similar to those seen in placebo-controlled trials with medications (e.g., Moncrieff et al, 2004). Furthermore, another meta-analytic study (Gross et al, 2007) comparing recent versus earlier rTMS trials showed a substantial difference between the estimated effect sizes ( d =0.76 for more recent studies and d =0.35 for older trials), indicating that recent refinements of rTMS protocols are leading to improved therapeutic efficacy.…”

Bright green light treatment of depression for older adults [ISRCTN69400161]

“…Bright green light treatment did not increase symptom complaints in the 60–79 year old age group and caused only negligible adverse effects. Although no statistically significant advantages of the 1,200 lux green light were found, the trend in self-ratings favored the green light, and the effect sizes on self-rating depression scales were comparable to those in many trials of 8+ weeks of antidepressant drugs [ 32 ]. Most antidepressants drug trials are planned on a larger scale to achieve significance even with small effect sizes (which may be all that the antidepressant achieves).…”

Does long term use of psychiatric drugs cause more harm than good?

“…A Cochrane review of tricyclic antidepressants included only trials that had atropine in the placebo to prevent unblinding because of the conspicuous side effects of the drugs. This review did not find any meaningful effect 4 ; the effect corresponded to only 1.3 points on the Hamilton scale, 1 and the smallest effect that can be perceived is 5-6 points. 16 …”

Treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations with transcranial magnetic stimulation in a patient with psychotic major depression: One-year follow-up

“…A recent meta-analysis (Schutter, 2009) including 1164 patients with MD (30 sham-controlled studies) resulted in a pooled effect size of 0.39. Although moderate, this effect size is similar to those seen in placebo-controlled trials with medications (e.g., Moncrieff et al, 2004). Furthermore, another meta-analytic study (Gross et al, 2007) comparing recent versus earlier rTMS trials showed a substantial difference between the estimated effect sizes ( d =0.76 for more recent studies and d =0.35 for older trials), indicating that recent refinements of rTMS protocols are leading to improved therapeutic efficacy.…”

Bright green light treatment of depression for older adults [ISRCTN69400161]

“…Bright green light treatment did not increase symptom complaints in the 60–79 year old age group and caused only negligible adverse effects. Although no statistically significant advantages of the 1,200 lux green light were found, the trend in self-ratings favored the green light, and the effect sizes on self-rating depression scales were comparable to those in many trials of 8+ weeks of antidepressant drugs [ 32 ]. Most antidepressants drug trials are planned on a larger scale to achieve significance even with small effect sizes (which may be all that the antidepressant achieves).…”

Does long term use of psychiatric drugs cause more harm than good?

“…A Cochrane review of tricyclic antidepressants included only trials that had atropine in the placebo to prevent unblinding because of the conspicuous side effects of the drugs. This review did not find any meaningful effect 4 ; the effect corresponded to only 1.3 points on the Hamilton scale, 1 and the smallest effect that can be perceived is 5-6 points. 16 …”