casts doubt on anti-depressants (fwd)

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Study casts doubt on anti-depressants

By Salamander Davoudi

Published: February 25 2008 19:25 | Last updated: February 25 2008 19:25

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).

All belong to a family of drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake

Inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs have become popular over the past 15

years as doctors consider them to be safer than tricyclic drugs that

carried a high risk of overdose. In 2006, 31m prescriptions for

anti-depressants were issued in England, up 27 per cent since 2001.

Alison Cobb, policy officer at mental health charity Mind, said:

" This study represents a serious challenge to the predominance of

pharmacological treatments for depression. Anti-depressants have been

shown to help many people, but by no means all. "

" Too many GPs are being forced to dish out drugs because they don't

have proper access to psychological therapies services which are

recommended by Nice. "

Mind is urging GPs to consider alternative therapies such as exercise

- particularly outdoor exercise - which it believes has shown to be

very effective in combating depression.

However, Dr Bell, consultant psychiatrist at Capio Nightingale

Hospitals, the provider of private psychiatry treatment, contested

the conclusions of the Hull research. " Anti-depressants are one of

the great breakthroughs in the treatment of depression in last 20 to

30 years, " he said.

" They do not always suit everybody but the results are often

life-saving. People who do studies do not have the hands-on

experience of using these medicines. "

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, at least one person

in five will suffer from a depressive illness at some point.

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