4 ms·

There is however evidence that they work: https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/big-new-study-confirms-antidepressants-work-better-placebo/ https://www.nhs.uk/news

There is however evidence that they work: https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/big-new-study-confirms-antidepressants-work-better-placebo/ https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/big-new-study-confirms-an...

Alex3917 8y ago
IIRC there have only been two studies on antidepressants that have gone on longer than 2 years and have been properly placebo controlled (active placebo, no washout group), so if a metastudy claims to include 21 studies then that's pretty good evidence that the metastudy is flawed.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  As depression has an average course of 4 months I wonder what effects we should expect to see after years.
  - DuskStar 8y ago
    What's the average course of antidepressants, though? I know in my case it's been quite a lot longer than 4 months...
- stordoff 8y ago
  This is noted in the limitations : > The results are reported after 8 weeks of treatment, so we don't know if they apply to long-term use of antidepressants. I'm not sure why you would discount an improvement in symptoms over 8 weeks though. Many major depressive episodes will be resolved in that time ("The median duration of MDE was 3.0 months; 50% of participants recovered within 3 months"[1]), so even if they are not suitable, or less effective, for long term care, that can still be a improvement in quality of life. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12204924 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12204924 (FWIW, it was 21 antidepressants, not 21 studies: "The researchers found 522 studies covering 116,477 patients in total. This included 101 previously unpublished studies.")
  - Alex3917 8y ago
    > I'm not sure why you would discount an improvement in symptoms over 8 weeks though. I'm not, but I don't think anyone is arguing that SSRIs can't be effective for some people with severe depression when used in the short term. The issue is that that only represents a small percentage of patients.

Alex3917 8y ago

IIRC there have only been two studies on antidepressants that have gone on longer than 2 years and have been properly placebo controlled (active placebo, no washout group), so if a metastudy claims to include 21 studies then that's pretty good evidence that the metastudy is flawed.

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
As depression has an average course of 4 months I wonder what effects we should expect to see after years.
- DuskStar 8y ago
  What's the average course of antidepressants, though? I know in my case it's been quite a lot longer than 4 months...
stordoff 8y ago
This is noted in the limitations : > The results are reported after 8 weeks of treatment, so we don't know if they apply to long-term use of antidepressants. I'm not sure why you would discount an improvement in symptoms over 8 weeks though. Many major depressive episodes will be resolved in that time ("The median duration of MDE was 3.0 months; 50% of participants recovered within 3 months"[1]), so even if they are not suitable, or less effective, for long term care, that can still be a improvement in quality of life. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12204924 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12204924 (FWIW, it was 21 antidepressants, not 21 studies: "The researchers found 522 studies covering 116,477 patients in total. This included 101 previously unpublished studies.")
- Alex3917 8y ago
  > I'm not sure why you would discount an improvement in symptoms over 8 weeks though. I'm not, but I don't think anyone is arguing that SSRIs can't be effective for some people with severe depression when used in the short term. The issue is that that only represents a small percentage of patients.