Antidepressant Treatment

Antidepressant Treatment

Introduction

The topic under study relates to the critical analysis of a research article. The research article is, “Placebo and antidepressant treatment for major depression: Is there a lesson to be learned for psychotherapy?” This article was published in July 2010 and the author is Esben Hougaard. The article is related to antidepressant and major depression. For major depression, antidepressant treatment is considered as one of the major treatment. However, in current trials with shrinking specific effects and growing placebo problem, antidepressant treatment has reached crises (Hougaard, 2010). This derives the objective of this paper. The objective is to analyze the crises caused to antidepressant treatment for major depression disorder due to placebo problem.

Hypothesis of Study

H1: Growing placebo problem causes crises to antidepressant treatment

As mentioned, antidepressant treatment has been considered as one of the major ways of treating major depression disorder. However, this hypothesis suggests that growing placebo problem is causing crises for antidepressant treatment. The aim of this paper is to find the validity of the hypothesis.

Research Methodology

The research methodology was based on controlled studies with active treatments and placebo groups (Hougaard, 2010). For the analysis of collected data, a structured rating scale was used. These methodological decisions informed and guided by the research design selected. There are two broad categories of research design: observational and interventional. Each research design emphasizes a different relationship to be explored between variables. The social issue or problem that needs further exploration and study articulated in the research problem statement, which conceptualizes the problem or issue and identifies the main salient variables to be examined. Based on this conceptualization, research questions developed to isolate the relationships among variables to be assessed. The research hypothesis that the investigator wishes to find helped determine the type research design that was used in the inquiry. Determining what research hypothesis should be posed and answered is one of the most important decisions to be made in the planning stages of a research study. It provides the foundation for selecting the actual design to be used in the study.

Findings of the study

The findings provide analysis about the effects that are preventive due to the continued treatments provided by the medication of antidepressant. In the study, a comparison is done between long-term drug treatment and medication to placebo (Hougaard, 2010). The Meta analysis provides evidence that such studies have treatment period of around 3 years. Within the follow-up of 1 to 2 years, the continuation drug group experienced decline mean rate of 18%. It is, however, not possible to distinguish between decline due to a return of an untreated illness, and relapse due to medication withdrawal mechanisms in discontinuation studies.

However, for the long-term efficacy of antidepressant medication, the evidence is not enough. Our suspicion that long term treatment with antidepressants might harm patients has not been ruled out by the existing data. In the study, it is also being argued that patients and therapists are not really “blind” as to treatment in antidepressant ...