Articles

Over the years I have noticed something very strange in the antidepressant literature. When antidepressants are compared with one another, their effects are remarkably similar. I first noticed this when Guy Sapirstein and I ran our meta-analysis of the published literature in 1998. When we first saw how weak the actual drug effect was, we thought we might have done something wrong. Perhaps we had made a mistake and included trials that tested different types of antidepressants. Perhaps we had underestimated the true

Do you worry a great deal about others and often forget your own needs? Read here how to learn to take proper care of yourself.There are phases in life that are largely shaped by caring for others: the children are still small, or your parents need more help and attention than before. Sometimes both come at once and demand a great deal. But: only those who regularly build up their strength can really be there for others. In this article you will learn how to find a balance between caring for others and caring for yourself.

Antidepressants are believed to work by correcting a chemical imbalance, in particular a shortage of serotonin in the brain (this matters if you want to understand the placebo effect and antidepressants). But an analysis of published and unpublished data that the drug manufacturers had kept hidden showed that most of the benefit, if not all of it, comes down to the placebo effect. Some antidepressants raise serotonin levels, others lower them, and others have no effect on serotonin at all.

Everyone knows the possible consequences of "addictive" behaviour (addiction: dependence, a harmful habit, habituation), that is, of dependence on pleasure; to some degree it is familiar to us all. In this article we look at addiction from a different angle. The use of drugs (alcohol and the rest), their abuse and, finally, dependence on them is a problem not only for the addicted person but also for those close to them.