Hacker News Reader

Comment by task_queue | Hacker News Reader

> These are the medicines the pharmaceutical industry have been pushing on us for decades to treat any malady of the mind, and they have been proven to be barely more effective than placebo treatments.

Weird, the studies where they're given to sufferers of severe depression and anxiety say otherwise.

View on HN

Sure, for severe cases studies have shown that depression medication helps, but that is not what the parent said:

  ...to treat any malady of the mind, and they have been proven to be barely more effective than placebo treatments

Which is also shown by studies[1][2]

1: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7945737

2: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18303940

That is true, but "any malady of the mind" is a blanket statement encompassing severe depression.

It gives the impression that the medications are not significantly better than placebo for any mental illness, when in fact they are significantly effective for certain mental illnesses.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com