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Antidepressants Work No Better Than a Placebo

Matthew Whalley writes "Researchers got hold of published and unpublished data from drug companies regarding the effectiveness of the most common antidepressant drugs. Previously, when meta-analyses have been conducted on only the published data, the drugs were shown to have a clinically significant effect. However, when the unpublished data is taken into account the difference between the effects of drug and placebo becomes clinically meaningless — just a 1 or 2 point difference on a 30-point depression rating scale — except for the most severely depressed patients. Doctors do not recommend that patients come off antidepressant drugs without support, but this study is likely to lead to a rethink regarding how the drugs are licensed and prescribed."

2 of 674 comments (clear)

  1. Should've listened to Tom Cruise by Spikeman56 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    The Scientologists were right all along!

  2. Re:This just in! by dbjh · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Spoken by someone who has no clue how bad depression can be.