Evaluate

• drugs Verses placebo

  soomoro et al compared the effectiveness between Ssri’s and placebos, found that ssri’s were more effective in reducing symtoms of OCD over a 3 month period.
• drugs verses placebo

  Kahn found that BZ’s were more effective at treating anxiety than placebos in 250 patients
• Comparison to other treatments 


  it is a lot cheaper (prescribed by the NHS)

  doctors have tried spend a lot less time with clients, only seeing them every couple of months to see if the patients are making any progress. Easier to administer and cheaper than Other therapies.
• symptoms not the cause 


  does not address the cause of some disorders. if a person is depressed because of childhood experiences, anti-depressants only provide a short term solution. can lead to ‘revolving door syndrome“, meaning they are back and forth with their doctor as ther disorder is never truly solved.
• Side effects 


  There are many side effects such as nausea and headaches (demonstrated by soomoro et al)

  this can lead to patients not wanting to take their medication, limitiing the overall effectiveness of the treatment
• Valid consent 


  Patients may not be in the right frame of mind when agreeing to receiving drug therapy, and may not be aware of the side effects
• Use of placebos 


  Ethical concerns raised, if there is already an effective treatment, this should be used as the control