At the weekend
I found an interesting article of the placebo effect in the
treatment of depression in Finnish.
It’s based on Irving Kirsch’s work.
“Kirsch’s response expectancy theory is based on the idea that
what people experience depends partly on what they expect to experience.”
“His first meta-analysis was aimed at assessing the size of the placebo effect in the treatment of depression.
The results not only showed a sizable placebo effect,
but also indicated that the drug effect was surprisingly small.
This led Kirsch to shift his interest to evaluating the antidepressant drug effect.”
Read more in Wikipedia/Irving Kirsch
Interesting how WHO
puts medication first:
“Most cases of depression can be treated with medication or psychotherapy.”
Antidepressant drugs – easier solution than people helping people?
This morning I found a TED video and a blog by Neil Pasricha.
Why Neil’s blog “1000 awesome things” has got
more than 25.387,760 hits?
Why is his blog so popular?
Have we lost our inner child? to enjoy small things in life?
Neil Pasricha The 3 A’s of awesome by TED
0 thoughts on “Irving Kirsch, Neil Pasricha…”
If meds are necessary to help someone beat depression then I hope they get all the meds they need, but medical professionals really need to start looking at the bigger picture of the person’s health in general when deciding on a course of treatment. If you aren’t eating well or exercising it’s completely natural to be depressed, and a lot of people are being given drugs before giving their bodies a chance to even try heal themselves naturally.
I agree.
It’s too late if a person is on medication and real reason for depression is not taken care.
Millions of people take pills because of stressfull life, only way get up in the morning to work. But how good quality of life is that year after year…
Great post!! I really feel that we can all get out there and find people to interact with on a regular basis if we only try. It takes a while, but in the three different areas I’ve lived, I’ve managed to find a core group of people interested in really being social and interacting. It’s possible!
I totally agree on people’s experiences being peppered by what they expect to experience. It’s the power of intent, even if people don’t realize that they are intending something to happen that they don’t necessarily want to happen. Again, great post!
Thanks May for your visit and comment!
To try. That’s it. Too many people don’t even try. We adults take life far too seriously, smile! 🙂
Placebo effect is something my daughter, aged 17, finds absolutely fascinating. After her baccalaureate she would like to study neuroscience and dig into that sort of topic.
THanks for the links, will follow them as soon as I have time. Will be back.
Hope that life in Casa is good. Happy new year to you!
Long time no see Nathalie! Happy this year to you too!
Neuroscience would be a very interesting field to dig, good luck to your daughter!
nice post…working with kids…many of them if not all medicated in some way, i think there is some validity to meds but they easily becomea crutch and people get over medicated…great vid too and valid points…
“Many of them if not all medicated in some way” – wow that’s scary!
Our modern world: we need medication to survive, stay alive or at least healthy, so we all should eat at least vitamins?
Once it was a mantra that if you eat balanced diet it would be enough but not anymore. In Finland all people should eat vitamin D.
Staying alive and healthy is becoming more and more expensive…
IMHO – we are over prescribed. There is a vast amount of wealth to be made in keeping people on drugs. The marketing of drugs here in the US is sickening. Not to be pun, but the ads make you feel like you might have some problem and you go seek out a doctor to prescribe whatever. It’s been shown that various activities from walking to sex release chemicals in our brains that change our moods.
Of course drugs help people but the money in the pharma industry concerns me.
Oh boy, some people don’t even know what walking is! 🙂
I’ve noticed that if I feel down or my energy level is not normal I have to do something about it. Go out, clean…do something else so that my brains get something else (or nothing) to think. I KNOW but not always ready to do anything. It’s easier to sit here and do nothing….until I’ve had enough.
I’ve learned to turn off my laptop. I really enjoy having more time to do other things.
The pharma industry is doing fine, that’s for sure!
Luin samasta aiheesta aamulehdestäni viime viikolla,mielenkiiintoista.Masentuneen omaisena tiedän,että vakava,kliininen masennus ei ole leikinasia,ja silloin on lääkkeitä pakko ottaa.
Ihan niin kuin mika tahansa vakava sairaus.
Masennustahan on montaa vaikeusastetta olen ymmartanyt.
Jos puhutaan kevyemmasta masennuksesta. Sellaisesta joka ei vaadi kovaa laakitysta, sairaalahoitoa, niin joskus mietin kuinka paljon omalla ajatusmaailmalla on vaikutusta omaan oloon.
Huomaan joskus itsekseni omassa liemessani asioita kipuillessa tuntevani ettei siita tilasta ole mitaan poispaasya muuta kuin toivo seuraavasta ja paremmasta paivasta.
Toivo. Jos minulla ei olisi toivoa en tieda missa olisin silloin kun kaikki on vaikeaa. Onneksi sellaisia paivia on harvoin mutta on kuitenkin.
Laaketeollisuus osaa hoitaa bisneksensa tyylikkaasti.
Juuri tanaan kuulin kuinka kaikkien suomalaisten tulee menna apteekkiin ja ostaa D-vitamiinia…
You bring up many good points here. I think there are many levels of depression and any avenue for a cure or alleviation is worth a try because if not taken seriously, it becomes worse and gets harder to treat. Our minds can lead us into some dark places. I believe we must stop from time to time and monitor our thoughts.
I agree about isolation and believe it is at the heart of many mental and physical health problems. I think as a society we are devolving into beings with less empathy and compassion for the “other.” I always have the impression that we flee from our homes in the morning to go to work, then flee back home and slam the door shut as tightly as possible in the evening to become passive voyeurs of pretend lives on TV. That is why I refuse to have television in my home. One can get addicted and use it as a replacement for human contact.
I hope this trend reverses soon, we are all in this life together and need to learn to communicate better. As you so rightly point out, we have the tools.
Isolation. It seems that it’s easier to connect in virtual world than in real world.
If I smile at people (polite, connection smile) far too often I get no response. And when I get it feels so goood! 🙂
I have no problem to talk with stranges wherever I am. But I met many people who are not used that.
Television. I have days not watching tv. I read the news in my reader or visit BBC, Al Jazeera or other news sites.
I want news from different sources.
I’m crazy about new inventions but it’s sad if all the tools we get isolate us more and more in real life…
It has been well over 20 years since I went through several periods of ‘clinical depression’. While I, somehow, got beyond all that, back then I did find treatment with psychoactive meds to be helpful. More helpful than counseling therapies. (Often deeply depressed people cannot tell you why they are depressed, and their condition is usually accompanied by a very diminished desire to talk about anything!) As far as people’s expectations about what they will experience having a placebo effect, I would have to add that, a depressed person, in the mere act of seeking any kind of help, has taken the first step out of the problem.
Let me add this, too: Welbutrin, a commonly prescribed anti-depressant med, has also been demonstrated to be of help to people trying to quit smoking. (And you don’t have to be depressed to ask your doctor to prescribe it for that reason.)
I’ve never been depressed but I have had ‘down’ days. Then I just stayed in bed. The next day I felt okay again.
I think it’s good if depressed person is taken seriously the first time when she/he meets a doctor.
Medication might be good for some people and some need to talk.
Our individualism has made a lot of harm in our relationships with other people.
We used to visit friends just popping in. Now people don’t have even time to call or send email asking ‘how are you’.
We have all the social equipments/tools/possibilities but we are lonelier than ever.