At the end of three months about 10% of the patients with medication or treatmentasusual improved, versus 70% of the patients in positive psychotherapy.
The results seem even stronger in the hands of a good therapist: we gave three groups of unipolar depressed patients either medication, treatmentasusual, or positive psychotherapy.
We'll never know if another episode or type of treatment would have saved Mindy McCready, but we do know that, for a significant number of Americans, business-as-usual addiction treatment isn't working.