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  3. Antidepressants fail to cure the symptoms of major depression in half of all

Antidepressants fail to cure the symptoms of major depression in half of all

游客2024-03-01  17
问题     Antidepressants fail to cure the symptoms of major depression in half of all patients with the disease even if they receive the best possible care, according to a definitive government study released yesterday.
    Significant numbers of patients continue to experience symptoms such as sadness, low energy and hopelessness after intensive treatment, even as about an equal number report an end to such problems--a result that quickly lent itself to interpretations that the glass was either half empty or half full.
    The $35 million taxpayer-funded study was the largest trial of its kind ever conducted. It provided what industry-sponsored trials have rarely captured: rather than merely ask whether patients are getting better, the study asked what patients most care about--whether depression can be made to disappear altogether.
    The study has been eagerly awaited by physicians, patients and the pharmaceutical industry. According to government statistics, depression afflicts 15 million Americans a year. About 189 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written last year, and the disease costs the nation $83 billion annually because of treatment costs, lost productivity, absenteeism and suicide.
    David Rubinow, a professor and the chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the results are an "illuminating and disconcerting" window into the affliction that is thought to fuel many of the 30,000 suicides committed each year in the United States.
    Although the study showed that patients who do not respond well to one drug could be helped by another, the results are "discouraging for several reasons," Rubinow said in an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which also published the study. It is troubling that large numbers of patients continued to have problems, he said. Additionally, he noted that the drugs used in the study--Celexa, Wellbutrin, Zoloft and Effexor--work in very different ways yet had roughly equal effectiveness when it came to treating depression. This suggests that the underlying brain mechanisms of depression are far more complicated than simple notions of a single chemical imbalance.
    Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study, emphasized that patients should seek---and stick with--treatment. "The glass is half full from our perspective, "he said. But "the glass is half empty in that we need to come up with better treatments in the future." [br] Which one of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
选项 A、Depression affects many people’s life in the United States.
B、Depression causes many suicides in the United States.
C、Depression costs the country lot of money every year.
D、Depression can be cured by intensive care.
答案 D
解析 选项A，B，C都就抑郁症问题在美国的严重程度进行了判断。文章第四段中“depression afflicts 15 million Americans a year”一句与选项A一致，故不选项A：而“About 189 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written last year，and the disease costs the nation ＄83 billion annually because of treatment costs，lost productivity，absenteeism and suicide”，该句支持选项 C，即抑郁症问题使美国人花费了大量的金钱；第五段中“...affliction that is thought to fuel many of the 30,000 suicides committed each year in the United States,”该句说“抑郁症被认为是导致美国每年3万人自杀的原因”，故不选B；而选项D说“在精心护理下，抑郁症可以治愈”，文章首段指出，即便是在最好的精心护理下，有些病人也不能痊愈，选项A与文章内容不符，故选D。
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