3 ms·

I don't think it's possible to tell if your or your partner's acclimatisation period and subsequent improvements were caused by the effect of the antidepressant

• teddyh 4y ago
  1. I don’t think that the argument hinges on one single person. 2. Sure there’s a way to tell! Just have her stop taking the pills; that’d show if it really worked before. (Note: do not do this.)
  • lfkdev 4y ago
    Only if you don't tell her, and replace them with fake ones. Other wise the placebo effect is activ again
  • Fradow 4y ago
    1. Indeed, there were serious trials before those were made available and prescribed. Those trials have to demonstrate that the medicine is better than placebo effect. I personally don't like to hand-wave away those trials to "big pharma bought them". 2. Yes, I inadvertently forgot to take a pill one day and only realized the next day. Coincidentally I felt depressed that day. It could only be a coincidence but I'm firmly convinced it's not. I'm not going to try to replicate the experiment though (especially since doing it on purpose could induce a placebo effect). Edit: see answer, I'm probably wrong on that 2.
    • moron4hire 4y ago
      On your number 2: SSRIs have to build up in the system before they are effective and take a lot of time to ween off when you stop them. If you only missed one day, any change should be considered psychosomatic.
• moron4hire 4y ago
  The placebo effect is not ever that big of an effect. Similarly, the Dunning-Kruger effect is not actually very large.