Hank, in response to your argument "Yes, but the efficacy is not necessarily the same for each individual patient" :
Back to our small example of Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, at the time these drugs were approved by the FDA, there were zero studies companring the efficacy of all three directly. There was no proof that Paxil might work better than Prozac on any given patient. All the trials and scientific studies of these drugs shows them to be equally efficacious and to have similar side effect profiles. There is very little difference between them, when you look at the literature. Now, in actual experience, one person might respond better to Paxil than Prozac, but there was no direct experience with this prior to the approval of Paxil, and there are still no studies comparing the two in this way. By the way, the same can be said for ANY medication. There is always individual differences in how a person responds to a particular medication. With any medication, a person might respond better to another one in his class. |
