Furious Seasons

February 25, 2008

British Study Says Anti-Depressants Are Useless

I'm not joking. A study by researchers at the University of Hull in the UK, reported on by the Financial Times, came to the following conclusion:

"Prescribing anti-depressants to the vast majority of patients is futile, as the drugs have little or no impact at all, according to researchers.
"Almost 50 clinical trials were reviewed by psychologists from the University of Hull who found that new-generation anti-depressants worked no better than a placebo – a dummy pill – for mildly depressed patients.

"Even the trials that suggested some clinical benefit for the most severely depressed patients did not produce convincing evidence. Professor Irving Kirsch from the university’s pyschology department said: 'The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking anti-depressants is not very great.'

"'This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments. Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients.'

"The researchers focused on four widely prescribed anti-depressants and the clinical trials that were submitted to win licensing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.

"The drugs included fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Efexor), and Paroxetine (Seroxat)."

These are likely some of the same studies as were reviewed in a New England Journal of Medicine paper last month, which came to the conclusion that anti-depressant efficacy was overstated by 30 percent and that for decades pharma companies had not published negative findings of the efficacy of their anti-depressants. That study was very big news in the States and I wrote about it previously here.

The British study was published today in PLoS Medicine. Here's the study. I'll likely have more on this tomorrow once I have been able to review the paper.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at February 25, 2008 04:15 PM

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Comments

I will drink to that! l was depressed when in my thirties,(working too hard in a job which was above, and over my head, I suffered from panic attacks, weight loss and insomnia. I took anti depressants and vallium, none had any effect. I took stock of my situation, changed my job, moved to a new town and took up fishing, within six months i was a new person! Now, 30 years later l am tougher than ever, nothing gets me down! l have been through illness, the death of my parents, and i am the person others come to when things go wrong. I consider that my depression "saved" me as a person!

Posted by: colin syme at February 25, 2008 04:42 PM

The studies always fail to say what the placebo was made up. A simple sugar cube will give people temporary energy which they will relate to the dose. No one ever investigates why the actually placebo works. Its not all just in the patients head. Those inert ingredients can also have a positive or negative effect.

Posted by: candy is your friend at February 25, 2008 05:04 PM

In my opinion, the biggest factor in the placebo effectiveness is that the pill [placebo] gives a person hope. The person is sustained and feels strong because, hey, they have a pill that is making them better. The body is such a complex system & mechanism that it responds physiologically to the brain's 'thoughts' of hope. This can be measured in brain scans. The brain has actually changed while taking the placebo.

There is a story of a woman who suffered depression for 30 years, the last years of which were extremely bad and she had considered suicide.
She became a patient in a clinical trial for Effexor and recovered. It was as though a miracle had happened to her. Then, the doctor sadly informed her that she had been one of the placebo people. This story can be read at: www.ssristories.com/show.php?item-2055

This PLoS article is in a way a very sad article. When I think of all the people who ruined their lives, not to mention the death and destruction, due to their SSRI use, my mind can hardly comprehend it.

After I read this article, I decided I needed a break so I went for a walk and then, for humor, read an article from the Washington Post on "The Worse Analogies Ever Written in a High School Essay".

Here are three of them to help us recover from this PLoS article.

1. "The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't"
2. "John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met"
3. "Fron the attic came an unearthly howl. the whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality like when you're on vacation in another city and "Jeopardy" comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m.

Tomorrow we can let the PLoS article sink in.

Posted by: Rosie at February 25, 2008 08:56 PM

Iam hoping they test-reserch other DX"s re-ssri"s. I took a ssri for my eating disorder and also OCD--I would love 2 see what comes outta that reserch--great 2 see this in main steam media-I read it on line else where. The ssri did help with the OCD but iam now on older anti-d--non ssri and it works fab and i dont have the side effects i did taking ssris -I now need no sedation drugs-the ssris reved me up so much I had too take anti-psy or benzos-

Posted by: poodles at February 25, 2008 09:18 PM

What is the latest betting that the medicines regulator in the UK (MHRA) will defend their corner by saying something along the lines of... 'We are currently investigating this matter'?

And four years down the line when asked the same question they will say... 'We are currently investigating this matter'.

Regarding Seroxat we can expect a GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson (usually Mary-Anne Rhyne or Alistair 'Pinocchio' Benbow) to state... 'The study is flawed, Seroxat has benefited millions of people all over the world' - which begs the question - What exactly are the benefits Glaxo and the MHRA seem to bang the drum about?

I've asked the MHRA - they cannot provide me with an answer. My MP (Member of Parliament) asked the same question to the Department of Health on my behalf. It's been over a month now and I'm still waiting. The Dept of Health however seem to think they can get the answer from visiting my blog - having regular daily visits.

So, here we have another study basically saying we may as well eat candy to cure our depression. No doubt it will be brushed under the carpet as so many of these negative studies are.

It's up to sites such as this, mine and a host of others to say NO! We have had enough of Pharma bullshit... Now YOU listen to what we have to say!

Maybe my MP will take an interest in this latest study? Then again I've more chance of seeing a pig fly past my window!

Great work Phil. I would send this report to the MHRA but they are refusing to correspond with me now because, and here I quote them, "We see no point in answering questions where you have prejudged the veracity of any answers".

Some get out clause that is huh?

Fid

Posted by: BOB FIDDAMAN at February 25, 2008 10:56 PM

Some interesting statistics at Google Answers on the number of people using anti-depressants:

Prescription anti-depressant medications
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=512093

Worth a look.

Posted by: David at March 10, 2008 12:19 PM