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Tuesday, April 05, 2005After 16 weeks of treatment, patients in both the medication and cognitive therapy groups showed improvement at about the same rate; however, cognitive therapy patients were less likely to relapse in the two years following the end of treatment. According to the researchers, the return of symptoms might demonstrate that the medication may have blunted the appearance of depression but did not affect underlying disease processes. "Medication is often an appropriate treatment, but drugs have drawbacks, such as side effects or a diminished efficacy over time,' DeRubeis said. 'Patients with depression are often overwhelmed by other factors in their life that pills simply cannot solve. In many cases, cognitive therapy succeeds because it teaches the skills that help people cope.' The researchers also noted slight differences in the response to treatment between the two testing locations, with cognitive therapy performing better at Penn and medications performing better at Vanderbilt. Researchers surmise that the medication worked so well at the Vanderbilt clinic because more of the patients there were markedly anxious, in addition to being depressed, and the medications used in the research have anti-anxiety properties" Or maybe the doctors at Penn were better cognitive therapists. The study was a small one, only 240 people, but still larger than most studies on depression and its treatment. (Abstract here). It would be nice to see more psychiatrists return to cognitive therapy. Too many these days rely on others to do the talking - pastors, psychologists, etc. , and confine themselves to monitoring the side effects of pills. We've all - doctors and patients - succumbed to the seduction of the promise of a quick and and easy fix from pharmaceuticals when it comes to depression and anxiety. posted by Sydney on 4/05/2005 08:55:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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