From Placebo to Panacea Putting Psychiatric Drugs to the Test [Hardcover]

FROM PLACEBO TO PANACEA

With the latest generation of psychoactive drugs, has pharmacologyat last triumphed over mental illness? A close look at worldscientific literature would suggest otherwise. The sobering truthis that many claims about the efficacy of drug therapies foreverything from depression to schizophrenia have been exaggerated.What, then, accounts for the inflated confidence clinicians and thelay public alike often have in the new generation of wonderdrugs ? Find out in From Placebo to Panacea.

From Placebo to Panacea is not an indictment of drug therapy.Rather, it is a reasoned analysis of the efficacy of psychoactivedrugs as compared to other forms of treatment--backed by hardempirical data. Above all, it is meant to function as a therapist'sand patient's guide to making more informed decisions whenconsidering treatment options.

The book begins with an in-depth discussion of salient problemswith standard methods of measuring the usefulness of psychoactivedrugs. Next is an exploration of a wide range of factors that canbias test results, both technical (e.g., patients participating indouble-blind trials can usually tell whether they are receiving aninactive placebo or a psychoactive drug) and psychosocial. Alsoconsidered are problems arising from current systems for diagnosingmental disorders, including complications resulting fromcomorbidity.

Subsequent chapters focus on drug therapies for specific disordersin both adults and children. The authors cover depression andbipolar disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, borderlinepersonality disorder, attention deficit, and hyperactivity. Eachchapter carefully considers the published findings on the disorderunder discussion, as well as questions of side effects, suicide,and potential long-term benefits.

A final chapter synthesizes the findings from previous chaptersinto a comprehensive picture of thl³