"New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests. A University of Hull team concluded the drugs actively help only a small group of the most severely depressed.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, said that if these results were confirmed they could be "very disturbing". But the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, said they disagreed with the findings."

Link: BBC NEWS | Health | Anti-depressants' 'little effect'

Additional recent research indicates that "self-help" books can be detrimental to people at risk of developing depression.

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: CBT-based self-help books can do more harm than good

Thanks for these links - very thought provoking. Whoops!! in danger of thinking too much for a minute and not enough doing

Hi All,

Ben Bosley wrote:

\\\"New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests. A University of Hull team concluded the drugs actively help only a small group of the most severely depressed.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, said that if these results were confirmed they could be \\\"very disturbing\\\". But the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, said they disagreed with the findings.\\\"

Link: BBC NEWS | Health | Anti-depressants' 'little effect'

The problem drug companies are now having with 'new generation' antidepressants is in comparison with the placebo effect. To get licensed for use a drug has to have demonstrably more effect than placebo. Unfortunately (for Lillly, Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline and the like) and inexplicably, the placebo effect is now on the rise, making it harder for new drugs to pass the test. Indeed the placebo effect has risen so much over the last twenty years or so that some of the currently marketed drugs would not have passed the test.

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Placebo Effect on the Rise « the observer effect

One other simple reason that SSRI's have become more popular with GP's is also that they are safer in overdose compared to some older antidepressants such as tricyclics. Another is the fairly recent clampdown on diazepam and other benzodiazepine prescribing because of iatrogenic dependency problems and subsequent litigation. Patients in surgeries are seeking all too often a prescribing solution to their problems, and so GP's hand out too many SSRI's given their apparent 'innocuous' nature. They are the new "take these and leave me alone" prescription, and while their efficacy across the board might be debatable, there are withdrawal syndromes associated with at least some of them emerging.

Why Antidepressants Are No Better Than Placebos - Newsweek.com

Depression drugs don’t work, finds data review - Times Online

Regards

MH

It's great, innit? And the patients get a snazzily-named bonus for later - 'SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome'.

I was looking at a medical forum recently and was genuinely suprised at the sheer amount of people laying claim to bizarrely-named 'illnesses' - "my derealization disorder" etc.. this is the ideal domain for a nice double-strength placebo. Come to think of it, I might just go back and prescribe some.

The last thing these people need is to bury their underlying issues further. This is the real pandemic of our time - labels.

redser wrote:

Additional recent research indicates that \\"self-help\\" books can be detrimental to people at risk of developing depression.

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: CBT-based self-help books can do more harm than good

Sooo..., basically, the folks who spent even more time than normal concentrating on their negative thoughts got better at being depressed? I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!

(I realize they were supposed to be "re-evaluating their negative thoughts," not wallowing. Having met several depressives, and having been depressed myself, though, I suspect that most of what happened was wallowing. I'm unconvinced that the particular technique [CBT, NLP, EFT, LMNOP] matters--anything that encourages them to start up the cycle of getting deep into the mire of crap will do it.)

Chris Johnson wrote:

I'm unconvinced that the particular technique [CBT, NLP, EFT, LMNOP] matters--anything that encourages them to start up the cycle of getting deep into the mire of crap will do it.)

I think this is very wisely put, Chris.