the lack of efficacy for antidepressants in mild to moderate cases of depression, as reported in the recent meta-analysis article published in the JAMA?
The conclusions in the article abstract state:
"The magnitude of benefit of antidepressantmedication compared with placebo increases with severity ofdepression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average,in patients with mild or moderate symptoms. For patients withvery severe depression, the benefit of medications over placebois substantial. "
So basically, in cases of depression that aren't severe, taking a placebo (sugar) pill is just as effective as taking an anti-depressant (not because sugar helps- but because the anti-d's aren't effective for mild to moderate depression).
What do you think? I know there's a lot of you out there on anti-d's, and I wonder what your thoughts are. These findings are obviously far from new (eg. this is a analysis of almost twenty years of research findings, thus many studies have reported similar things), but I know that at least over here, anti depressant medication is prescribed very easily and not just reserved for severe cases of depression despite the fact that there's no evidence to support their use in those cases.