Antidepressants and Placebos

[Anomaly]

Why Antidepressants Are No Better Than Placebos - Newsweek.com

Interesting section:

So concluded the JAMA study in January. In an analysis of six large experiments in which, as usual, depressed patients received either a placebo or an active drug, the true drug effect—that is, in addition to the placebo effect—was "nonexistent to negligible" in patients with mild, moderate, and even severe depression. Only in patients with very severe symptoms (scoring 23 or above on the standard scale) was there a statistically significant drug benefit. Such patients account for about 13 percent of people with depression. "Most people don't need an active drug," says Vanderbilt's Hollon, a coauthor of the study. "For a lot of folks, you're going to do as well on a sugar pill or on conversations with your physicians as you will on medication. It doesn't matter what you do; it's just the fact that you're doing something." But people with very severe depression are different, he believes. "My personal view is the placebo effect gets you pretty far, but for those with very severe, more chronic conditions, it's harder to knock down and placebos are less adequate," says Hollon. Why that should be remains a mystery, admits coauthor Robert DeRubeis of the University of Pennsylvania.

 

[lyricalliaisons]

I agree with that article in that most of the people taking anti depressants would probably do just as well with a form of therapy or some way to give them hope & make them feel better about themselves & their lives. I think the whole reason so many people are on anti-depressants, etc. is because many people with mild depression are taking them, when they don't even need them. People who are very severely depressed on the other hand, are much better off on an anti-depressant. It makes sense.