You asked, Dr. Foster Answers

How might medication impact the effectiveness of psychotherapy?

DR. FOSTER: They do impact the effectiveness. Sometimes some of the symptoms of distress are actually important measures-- kind of thermometers, you might say-- as to the effectiveness of our intervention.

And you take away symptoms too quickly, and the person will quit coming for help. And we don't help as much in the long term. We find that for most effective for major mental illness is a combination of medication with psychotherapy. So it's very important that it be a part of the treatment and be considered in the process as well as the outcome.