[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I am sort of shocked to find out that placebos are actually outperforming prescription drugs.

What makes you say that, there is not a word in the article to suggest that most of the numerous studies performed on drugs which have been licensed show the placebos outperform the drugs. It just says that one or two of the hundreds of studies in a protocol show this, and do not say that this was for a drug that got licensed.

[watchin]

The makers of Prozac had to run five trials to obtain two that were positive, and the makers of Paxil and Zoloft had to run even more.

[Amore]

Thanks for trying to respond to some of the uninformed things said here. I wondered why some were so vehement on the subject, and I did not know that the Scientologists had been propounding the argument watchin has been making. I guess I shouldn't get so upset, just because a few people post nonsense on a message board.

[Sam Cree]

"What makes you say that, there is not a word in the article to suggest that most of the numerous studies performed on drugs which have been licensed show the placebos outperform the drugs"

This is one of the words: "A new analysis has found that in the majority of trials conducted by drug companies in recent decades, sugar pills have done as well as or better than antidepressants."

I think the article certainly implies that they at least compete and sometimes outperform, at least in the case of depression drugs. Is it your experience that this is not so or that the above studies were mostly for drugs that didn't "pass the test"?

As an asthmatic, I do rely on drugs (Seravent and Albuterol) and don't know if I would survive without them, at least in the colder months. I am quite certain that they have a major and positive impact on my health.