I thought this article was very interesting. It makes me wonder....how many of the medications for depression and other social problems are simply an adult replacement for a pacifier?
(I'm sure I will I get comments for that!)
Read the article and let me know your thoughts.
Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.
Photo: Nick Veasey
Merck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals in sales. Even worse, patents on five blockbuster drugs were about to expire, which would allow cheaper generics to flood the market. The company hadn't introduced a truly new product in three years, and its stock price was plummeting.
In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck's research director, laid out his battle plan to restore the firm to preeminence. Key to his strategy was expanding the company's reach into the antidepressant market, where Merck had lagged while competitors like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. "To remain dominant in the future," he told Forbes, "we need to dominate the central nervous system."
His plan hinged on the success of an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869. Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive's dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects, and Merck touted its game-changing potential at a meeting of 300 securities analysts.
Behind the scenes, however, MK-869 was starting to unravel. True, many test subjects treated with the medication felt their hopelessness and anxiety lift. But so did nearly the same number who took a placebo, a look-alike pill made of milk sugar or another inert substance given to groups of volunteers in clinical trials to gauge how much more effective the real drug is by comparison. The fact that taking a faux drug can powerfully improve some people's health—the so-called placebo effect—has long been considered an embarrassment to the serious practice of pharmacology... (read more)
In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck's research director, laid out his battle plan to restore the firm to preeminence. Key to his strategy was expanding the company's reach into the antidepressant market, where Merck had lagged while competitors like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. "To remain dominant in the future," he told Forbes, "we need to dominate the central nervous system."
His plan hinged on the success of an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869. Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive's dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects, and Merck touted its game-changing potential at a meeting of 300 securities analysts.
Behind the scenes, however, MK-869 was starting to unravel. True, many test subjects treated with the medication felt their hopelessness and anxiety lift. But so did nearly the same number who took a placebo, a look-alike pill made of milk sugar or another inert substance given to groups of volunteers in clinical trials to gauge how much more effective the real drug is by comparison. The fact that taking a faux drug can powerfully improve some people's health—the so-called placebo effect—has long been considered an embarrassment to the serious practice of pharmacology... (read more)
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Let me close with this comment- I know there are real medical problems and wonderful medications to address them. That is not what this article is about. It's conclusions fascinated me. With all of the pressures, worries and depressions of our days all most people really needed was a little placebo relief from their troubles and it made a difference.
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Application for Christians? Many have said that the Christian faith offers a placebo effect to it's believers. They maintain we feel better because we believe, but it doesn't mean the object we believe in is able to do anything to help us. That's the claim of many I have read in recent days. Their conclusion is this, just say no. Don't take the pill of faith. There's nothing there anyway, but if it makes you feel better.....
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But, what of the millions who have gone to their death for this faith and not recanted? What of a faith that changes a murderer into a kind and caring man? What of a faith that has changed millions? No faith placebo could ever do what the Christian faith has done. There is something real and efficacious in this pill that we have swallowed and it brings new life to those who have taken it. It's real. It works. There is no other "pill" that will cure our sin problem but the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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