Posted by MB on June 2, 2003, at 17:44:00
In reply to Re: Does Med Education Correlate With tx Resistence? » MB, posted by Larry Hoover on June 1, 2003, at 22:27:38
> Moreover, I think it unlikely that an attitude of doubt about the true efficacy of meds could do much to block their physiological effects, if there are to be any. It could, however, reduce the likelihood of placebo-type responsiveness. Perhaps that sense of doubt increases with each treatment failure. But that's the human element, something I wouldn't necessarily associate with familiarity with the PDR or measures of intelligence.
See, I agree that doubt about the drug shouldn't hamper its efficacy, yet my doctor tells me that if I *believe* that nothing will work, then nothing will work. This sounds preposterous. The belief that nothing will ever work--that kind of hopelessness--seems like just another symptom of depression; a symptom that any *real* antidepressant should correct...i.e., my cynicism about medication shouldn't hamper its efficacy. I agree. Ok, so I think I answered my own question from the previous post...in a way. Learning about these things shouldn't make them less effective. But, I can see that I might "be on the lookout for side effects" and feel them when I might not have otherwise. Or I might be afraid to try a medication because its mechanism of action is similar to something I've tried in the past that didn't agree with me...hence my rapidly closing mind regarding psychopharmacology (and my rapidly opening mind regarding drugging myself into oblivion with things that, in the past, may not have improved my functionality, but improved the way I felt)> I wonder if you've considered the logical fallacy "post hoc, ergo propter hoc", i.e. after this, therefore because of this.
Yeah, I was thinking of that. I noticed that education and treatment resistance coincided, and I was just wondering if anyone *thought* there might be a causative relationship in either direction. I know what you mean about the mind assuming causal relationships just because there is a temporal correlation between two events. That is probably going on to a certain degree in my mind (well, I *know* it is, or I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place).
> Your refer to trying SSRI meds on different occasions, but noticing similar effects. Could that be because they are similar meds, rather than because you read up on their psychopharmacology?Actually what was happening was that the side effects of each subsequent trial were getting worse, and the drugs seemed progressively less effective in the order in which I tried them. Simultaneously, I was reading up on pharmacology, trying to figure out what was going on. There may have been a few times that I was oversensitive to side effects because I was on the lookout for them...or a couple of times when I said, "heck, this Zoloft works just like the Prozac I recently discontinued...the Prozac didn't work, so why stay on the Zoloft?" I know I've been guilty of those lines of thinking in the past.
> Methinks you may thinks too much about this.
Hahaha...that's an understatement! I think if I could think less, the whole world could benifit! lol
MB
Thanks for the imput, Lar
poster:MB
thread:230644
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030530/msgs/230885.html