[Austin Willard Wright]

We agree though I must say that the pro-druggers (at least on this thread) usually rely on anecdotal cases or their own personal experiences. Speaking of statistics, if this stuff about sugar pills is true, it seems that the FDA may have been asleep at the wheel when approving these "medicines" as statistically beneficial doesn't it?

[NukeMan]

Actually, no. The placebo effect has been increasing noticeably over the past 15 years or so, a very puzzling development. Drugs that passed muster in 1985 (superior to placebo and roughly equivalent to a tricyclic antidepressant (the 'gold standard' AD)) might not pass today. In fact, one large pharma company couldn't show effectiveness for a trial of an noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor, but also included in that trial was a control group that took Prozac (fluoxetine) and a control group that took a placebo. *Neither* Prozac nor the experimental drug proved superior to a placebo!!.