Well I know antidepressants have been proven to be equally as effective as a placebo in trials.. And in treatment of anxiety, the person who's dosed up on xanax is probably going to report feeling lower levels of anxiety than the sober person getting the same treatment because they're not on tranquilliser drugs.. And that improvement is only short term. The benzo drug stops working after a while, doctor ups the dose, that works for a while, up the dose again. Then it comes to the point where the medicine is ineffective and can't be increased so the patient is suffering all the side effects of the drug then have to deal with tolerance and inevitably, withdrawal from the drug.. That's not an improvement. That's putting a band aid over a bullet wound and saying 'look, no blood'!