Articles and self-help - The truth about antidepressants

Scientists have made the astonishing claim that antidepressants are no better than placebos.

After intensive research scientists have come to the conclusion that antidepressant drugs, including Prozac, simply don't work for most users. Prozac is used by an estimated 40 million people.

When researchers studied all available data, including clinical trials that manufacturers didn't publish at the time, they discovered that most people prescribed antidepressants fared no better than those taking placebos. The only exception was among severely depressed patients, who fared marginally better on antidepressants than on the placebos.

The study concluded that the overall effect of new-generation antidepressant drugs is not clinically significant. So it appears that Prozac might not actually do what it says on the label it does. Prof Irving Kirsch from the department of psychology at Hull University commented that "Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed,"

In 2006 there were 31 million prescriptions for antidepressants, including Prozac, issued in the UK alone. That figure includes 631,000 for children.

Source: The Guardian February 26, 2008