Question

**Choose an article from a newspaper, magazine or internet site.

****A summary of the article in your own words

***Why this is a medical ethical issue, or a fallacy
***Your ethical analysis (Be sure to mention fallacies, if appropriate, in later memos.)
***Your conclusions, i.e., What do YOU think about this.
****Include the original article, or a copy, with the memo.
****The memo is NOT to exceed 1 page in length.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Paper – A Systematic Review of Comparative Efficacy Treatments and Controls for Depression

Introduction: Depression, anxiety and stress are the three most common issues that psychologists have found in their patients. Over the years, with problems in finance and markets, jobs, pressures of society etc. there are more Americans who succumb to taking anti-depressants. Psychotherapy is also the go-to remedy for this issue. But with several remedial solutions, there is bound to be a debate over which is safest, best and helps cure the problem and not just suppress it.

Overview: Recently, in the field of psychotherapy, there has been a debate over alleviating depression in patients. There are concerns over which brings affirmative results, anti-depressants or psychotherapy. The Washington post recently published a discussion on whether anti-depressants were the better and preferred solution or psychotherapy.

Morris, N. (Ed.). (2017, November 25). From pills to psychotherapy, treating depression often lies in a gray zone. The Washington Post.

It is not only a matter of popular opinion in this case but, also a matter of what is in the best interest of the patient. The repercussions of depression and be detrimental and therefore a matter like this is delicate and a conclusion should be based on facts and not on what is most profitable to any drug producing industry.

Body: The authors of the paper “A Systematic Review of Comparative Efficacy of Treatments and Controls for Depression” reviewed data from the FDA and data from published trials. “Overall, antidepressants led to greater symptom reduction compared to placebo among both unpublished FDA data and published trials (F = 38.5, df = 239, p<0.001). In the published trials we noted that the magnitude of symptom reduction with active depression treatments compared to controls was significantly larger when raters evaluating treatment effects were un-blinded compared to the trials with blinded raters (F = 2.17, df = 313, p<0.05).”

Khan, A., Faucett, J., Lichtenberg, P., Kirsch, I., & Brown, W. A. (2012). A Systematic Review of Comparative Efficacy of Treatments and Controls for Depression. PLoS ONE, 7(7). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041778

If such a study is taken into consideration, then it can be observed that both psychotherapy and medication are equally as important and should be complementary to each other.

Conclusion - Based on the data collected, it can be pointed out that the most effective and the safest approach to treating a patient with depression is both therapy and medication. The regulation and alternation of which should be regulated by a professional.

When such research is conducted, it is essential for the research team to have a proper control group. This is because the conclusions might be entirely subjective depending on factors such as the level of the disorder, causes, inherent psyche, acceptance towards treatment etc. Any relationship found between variables would need to be effectively tested in order to make sure that the factors that establish results are properly recognised.