Posted by Larry Hoover on January 27, 2009, at 7:08:56
In reply to Re: Review Article Trashing Serotonin Hypothesis + Adv, posted by linkadge on January 26, 2009, at 18:06:41
> But, if the SSRI's are really no better than placebo, thats what you would statistically expect - that fewer than half of studies find them better.
>
> Even if SSRI's were exactly equivilant to the placebo, you'd still expect approximately half of studies indicating they're better, and the other half indicating they're not.
>
> LinkadgeNo, link, there's more to it.
If antidepressants were really no better than placebo, you'd find that placebos were just as frequently superior to antidepressants, and by similar amounts. About 90% of studies would show no superiority of either study arm (no significant difference), and 5% would show significant antidepressant or placebo superiority.
Lack of significant superiority of antidepressants over placebo occurs in about half of trials. That's not the same thing as saying there's no difference. There is virtually always a superior response to antidepressants, but half the time it's not strong enough to reach signficance.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:876214
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/876508.html