Placebo Power - Letter to the Editor

How many readers were surprised that "Controlled Study Finds No Efficacy for St. John's Wort in Major Depression" (News & Comment, July/August 2002)?

Both the media and SI ignored, however, a point of greater interest to skeptics--and the medicine-buying public: In the study (Journal of the American Medical Association 287 [14]: 1807-1814, April 10, 2002), neither did the mainstream prescription medication sertraline, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, outperform the placebo.

The study raises possibilities for a new, but proven "nutritional supplement": "Genuine Placebo, clinically tested as effective as sertraline, with no side effects whatsoever. Accept no substitutes."

And that's just one of its uses.

William E. Lee

Portland, Maine

COPYRIGHT 2002 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group