Commonly prescribed anti-depressants: What clinicians need to know
Date
2011-10Author
Gaynor, Danielle
Bogue, John
Egan, Jonathan
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Gaynor, Danielle, Bogue, John, & Egan, Jonathan. (2011). Commonly prescribed antidepressants: What clinicians need to know. The Irish Psychologist, 37(12), 292-295.
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Abstract
According to two Cochrane collaboration reviews (Moncrieff,
Wessely, & Hardy, 2004; Turner, Mathews, Linardatos, Tell, &
Rosenthal, 2008), the efficacy of modern antidepressants has
yet to be conclusively demonstrated to be greater than that of
active placebo. In one review, Turner et al. (2008) assessed all
studies of antidepressants which had ever been submitted to
the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States (US).
They reported that findings of studies finally published in peer
review journals indicated antidepressants had a 94% success
rate in treating depression. However, when unpublished results
were also examined by the authors of this review, the success
rate of antidepressants fell below 50%, and, when combined,
published and unpublished studies showed a 51% level of
efficacy in antidepressants. This result was minimally better
than that of the results for placebos. Fournier et al. (2010) also
investigated this phenomenon and concluded that the extent
of benefit of antidepressants compared with a placebo appears
to increase with the severity of depressive symptoms. They
reported that antidepressants showed a significant treatment
effect for those with severe depression. They added that the
extent of benefit for patients with mild or moderate depressive
symptoms may be minimal or non-existent.