Are Antidepressants Better Than Placebo for Some? Not So Fast, Researchers Caution
Recent study finding antidepressants beat placebo for 15% doesn’t account for study unblinding and includes only extremely short-term data.
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Recent study finding antidepressants beat placebo for 15% doesn’t account for study unblinding and includes only extremely short-term data.
Pharmacogenomic testing did not improve outcomes by the end of the study. Both groups were just as likely to recover from depression.
Researchers can’t predict the 15% who benefit from antidepressants, and the other 85% are unnecessarily exposed to the harms of the drugs.
In a real-world setting, less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with depression improved with medication, hospitalization, and therapy.
Nassir Ghaemi: “Most psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease..."