Study Finds Turmeric Extract Equal to Prozac for Serious Depression

[eggplant]

41. Ok, a few important things to keep in mind as we go off the rails regarding woo.

Regarding "treatment" of depression:

1. "Depression" is a complex diagnosis.
2. There are many distinct pharmaceutical and/or therapeutic treatments for depression, not just Prozac.
3. No single treatment works for everyone. Sometimes you have to play Rx roulette to find the one that works for you.
4. The usefulness of a single drug on an individual changes over time. See #3, above.

Regarding woo and the conspiracy theory of big Pharma:

5. Woo is often miscategorized as the antithesis of Big Pharma, which is thought to be purely out for profit at the expense of consumers.
6. Woo is more correctly characterized by its use of anecdotal "evidence", which is to say no actual scientific (demonstrable, repeatable, statistically-valid study) evidence, regarding treatment outcomes.
7. Herbal or naturopathic treatments may be woo, and may be medicine, depending on whether actual testing regarding efficacy, dosing, contraindications, etc. has been done.
8. There really is a huge multi-billion dollar "woo" industry out there pushing untested "treatments" without any fear of liability. There are good and bad actors on both sides.

Regarding the validity of woo and/or big pharma:

9. "X worked for me, thus X should be considered a valid treatment for everyone" is not a useful statement.
10. "X did not work for me, thus X should not be considered a valid treatment for anyone" is not a useful statement.
11. Both #9 and #10 apply to both woo and big pharma treatments. Science simply does not work this way.

The generally absurd shouting matches here on DU about woo are just that: absurd. Nobody is listening to anyone, nobody is actually trying to convince anyone, and the loudest people are trying to shame their opponents with irrelevant "blind defenders of X" labels. None of this is helpful or even interesting (except as popcorn-consuming entertainment, and even that gets tired after a while).

As for the OP, this is an actual scientific study with actual quantitative results. It is a small study, and it is an animal study, and so the results should be considered with that in mind. But it really is a study. It shows that it is possible to meet in the middle -- scientific non-pharma-conspiracy-based research. So it is a start. It is not enough to draw conclusions in either direction as a result, but it indicates that further study may be warranted.

Finally, let's try to keep in mind that this study is discussing a quantifiable measure of a single chemical component found in turmeric, not some arbitrary amount of turmeric the spice. Confusing the two leads to woo.