DON’T GET DEPRESSED - THE DRUGS DON’T WORK

26-02-2008

Today’s revelation that commonly prescribed anti-depressants are practically useless will come as no surprise to regular Stirrer readers.  Our blogging psychologist Dr Mike Drayton came to the same conclusion on this site ten months ago.

Researchers at Hull University have used Freedom of Information laws to gain access to 47 previously unpublished clinical trials for a range of well-known drugs including Prozac and Seroxat.

They concluded that although they might, in some cases, lead to a slight improvement in patients well-being, it wasn’t great enough to register as “clinically significant” according to guidelines laid down by NICE (http://tinyurl.com/2pm3pq).

It’s also emerged that the pharmaceutical companies had withheld information from the licensing authorities so that they were unable to assess the true effectiveness – or otherwise – of the drugs.

Dr Drayton, who runs Birmingham’s Opus Psychology, commented, “I’ve known this for years.

“A lot of the time, with all the side effects, these drugs make people feel worse.

“They also fail to deal with the root cause of what makes people depressed in the first place.”

He’s not being clever after the event, either: check out this article from last April when he told us about a patient who found that a common anti-depressant made his life worse click link here
 
HAVE YOU TAKEN AN ANTI-DEPRESSANT?

WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO TO BEAT DEPRESSION?