Antidepressant drugs don't work- UK article states

[PharmDY]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article3466137.ece

now i'm wondering if all of those clinical trials are available in the US.

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[WVUPharm2007]

Of all the studies done on every antidepressant, they only study 47 trials? Eh....

 

[bananaface]

They seem confused.

Antidepressant drugs don't work – official study...

The treatments that do work

* Exercise: Helps some people with depression. Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, said running helped him cope with depression.

* Friends: Talking through your feelings can help in mild depression with a friend or relative or in a self-help group.

* Cognitive behavioural therapy: Teaches you to challenge negative thoughts and feelings of hopelessness.

* Interpersonal therapy: Focuses on relationships and problems such as difficulties with communication.

* Counselling: Helps you think about the problems in your life and find new ways of dealing with them.

* Antidepressants: Increasingly seen as a second-line treatment, if exercise or talking treatments do not work.

 

[Priapism321]

This is not a big secret, and has been known for quite some time that these drugs are probably no more effective than placebo. Unless you listen to the drug companies; they suppress the data, create the diseases, "educate" the doctors, and who pays for it in the end: you.

I will attach the above mentioned article, and also an abstract from a recent New England Journal article which came to the exact same conclusion:

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/archive/1549-1676/5/2/pdf/10.1371_journal.pmed.0050045-L.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Some good blog posts on medical evidence regarding this issue:

http://medicalevidence.blogspot.com/2008/01/have-peddlers-of-antidepressants-big.html

http://brodyhooked.blogspot.com/2008/02/yet-more-evidence-of-data-suppression.html

 

[Priapism321]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article3466137.ece

now i'm wondering if all of those clinical trials are available in the US.

I'm not sure I understand the question; the entire study is based on clinical trial data submitted to the FDA, why would the information not be available in the U.S. It is not necessarily a British study just because the first author on the paper happens to reside in the U.K.

Sometimes I am not sure if there is an actual thought process that happens before these threads are created. Like, you know, maybe glancing at the actual article prior to.

 

[Priapism321]

Of all the studies done on every antidepressant, they only study 47 trials? Eh....

Their yield was the result after filing a request under the Freedom of Information act requesting all data submitted to the agency for 6 antidepressants. I find it interesting the FDA refused to provide data from 9 trials the authors deemed relevant. Surprise, surprise, all 9 were later found to have reported negative results regarding therapy. FDA isn't telling why they withheld the information.

 

[Pharmavixen]

There's an interesting book by Dr. David Healy, called, Let them eat Prozac, about SSRIs. He spoke so publicly about his concerns regarding the efficacy and safety of SSRIs that it cost him a job.

http://www.pharmapolitics.com/cbcnational.html

Healy's argument is that S.S.R.I.'s are suitable for some patients but in fact can be very harmful for others. And the impression I get is that the drug companies want 100 percent of the market whereas if you do that research and Healy's right, that there are 40 percent or 50 percent of the people who currently get S.S.R.I.'s for whom it's not appropriate, then the market is cut in half.

PAUL GARFINKLE: Essentially, it was the extreme nature of his views with extraordinary extrapolations based on inadequate science, that really are scientifically irresponsible. For example, the view that anti-psychotics cause more harm than good.

MACINTYRE: Did Dr. Healy actually say that anti-psychotics do more harm than good? I believe that he claims he didn't actually say that.

GARFINKLE: I have to tell you, I wasn't at the lecture. But I've been told by a number of people that he essentially said that.

I've dispensed many SSRI scripts over the years, and the people who take them seem to have more problems with side effects than derive benefit from them.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Most studies of anti-depressant are short term (6 months or less). But in practice, people are put on them for years. Prescribers give them out like candy. My opinion is that anti-depressants should be used short-term, and as an adjunct to therapy/counseling.