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Your article uses the words “placebo therapies such as supportive counseling.” I think that people in the profession and people who have been paying for such therapy would disagree with the characterization. Also, the various permutations of treatment covered in the article didn’t include a very common one: drugs without any serious counseling. In such circumstances, there is little opportunity for (or need for?) development of a therapeutic alliance between doctor and patient.

Timothy J. Harrison
Seattle, Wash.