Posted by pat123 on March 12, 2001, at 12:25:27
In reply to ...lies, dammed lies, and statistics... » pat123, posted by dj on March 10, 2001, at 14:22:45
> >... Given a placebo the effective % is a few points, not tens of points. It bothers me that a book is published and held up as an answer with such poor and incorrect information. these fact are well known.
> >
> > Perhaps someone made a mistake when posting this, I hope so and that the book is correct on >these facts.
>
> In my very first business class at university my professor quoted Disraeli or Mark Twain (I forget which) talking about how: "There are lies, dammed lies and then statistics." and then went on to show how they could be used to distort 'the facts'. The quote you refer to is one I posted and is taken directly from: http://www.undoingdepression.com/Active-intro-chapterone.html, which I've also cited at other places in this posting and others.
>
Reguardless of your verbage this statement is false "Considering that these pills are really only slightly more effective than their predecessors - that is, only a little more effective than placebo -"A lillle more than placebo would suggest 5-10 % as a placebo is 1-3 %. It is well proven that AD's are ~60 %, this is a difference of an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE ! TCA's have been out since the 1950's and are out gold standard, still, and effective at rate of ~ 60 %.
Pat
poster:pat123
thread:4748
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010209/msgs/5065.html