Some Advocates Need to Re-Review The Evidence Base

Writing in response to a recent Florida newspaper article, which effectively linked Effexor to the suicide of a promising artist, Angela Vickers, an attorney and advocate for the mentally ill, offers this:

"The harsher tragedy is that both of these common mental illnesses have an 80 percent to 90 percent recovery rate when the patient is promptly and properly diagnosed and properly treated. Medication brings recovery."

Eighty percent to 90 percent recovery rate? Say what? Even pharma companies don't make that claim. In fact, an NIMH report put it like this a few years ago:

"Even when they do receive treatment, only slightly more than half of all of them respond well to therapy, defined as experiencing a 50 percent or greater reduction from baseline symptom severity. If complete symptom remission or restoration of function is the outcome, then the proportion is even lower."

Yep. Sure sounds like 90 percent to me.