March 15, 2008

New Study Says Antidepressants Don’t Work

A new study says that antidepressants are as effective as placebos when it comes to relieving a person’s depression. This was found by British researchers that went through data from 47 published and unpublished clinical trials of drugs, such as Prozac and Paxil. They found that drug companies were being selective in reporting the results of their studies and the drugs only showed significant mood improvements in the most severely depressed people. For most people, antidepressants are no more effective than taking a sugar pill.

It is suggested that antidepressants work because people expect them to and not because they change the chemistry of the brain. Studies have found that talk therapy and regular exercise are just as effective as the drugs in relieving mild depression.

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