A recent study by researchers in Britain has concluded that antidepressants are usually no better than placebos. These researchers looked at data from almost 50 different studies on the effectiveness of four antidepressants:
Prozac (fluoxetine)
Paxil (Seroxat or paroxetine)
Effexor (venlafaxine or Novo-Venlafaxine)
Serzone (nefazodone)
          They found that when the studies actually did yield results showing the drugs were effective, even those positive results were over exaggerated. For example, the company might claim the drug worked when actually it was the placebos (sugar pills with no medication) that under performed, rather than the antidepressant that worked better. In fact, the only time the antidepressants were shown to work significantly better than placebos was when they were prescribed to a very severely depressed patient. 
          These findings are good news for patients. Non-chemical therapy methods for treating depression have fewer side effects and can be good for you no matter how serious your ailment. Non-chemical means include exercise, better diet, a relaxed schedule, and spending stress-free time with friends and family. Unlike antidepressants, these are unlikely to worsen your condition or cost you a lot of money.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Medication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.