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Depression Community
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Recent info on Antidepressant Studies
by Savas, Jan 19, 2008 08:42PM
(I copied this off the addiction board, it was mentioned some here might be interested)
A recent article in the NEJM just stated that manufacturer's of antidepressants worked with FDA to cover up/hide the fact that studies showing that antidepressants are actually minimally helpful (if at all) and most of the time quite harmful.
The percentage they claimed (69% successful treatment) is actually much lower (around 39%). Studies showing that antidepressants had negative results were suppressed or tailored to show positive results. Some of the positive studies were actually redundantly repeated suggesting the success rate is even lower.
This is lame but I can't access the NEJM site because they aren't free. I've had some people ask some specific questions, but until I can check it by using the "old fashioned internet" (ie; trudging over to the library magazine section) I won't know more.
The specific drugs mentioned are Paxil, effexor and prozac. BUT, they mentioned 12 drugs specifically in the article, but the abstract doesn't show the list. So that's only three of them. hopefully it's just the SSRI's they're talking about and not the IMAO's.
So I'll let you know what I find out when I can get down there. Unless someone has a January 17 2007 copy of the New England Journal of Medicine lying around? :)
The one good result of this is they're talking about making the clinical trials.org site easier to access and navigate (it's impossible to find things there right now). So these studies will be required to be in there and much easier to access.
A recent article in the NEJM just stated that manufacturer's of antidepressants worked with FDA to cover up/hide the fact that studies showing that antidepressants are actually minimally helpful (if at all) and most of the time quite harmful.
The percentage they claimed (69% successful treatment) is actually much lower (around 39%). Studies showing that antidepressants had negative results were suppressed or tailored to show positive results. Some of the positive studies were actually redundantly repeated suggesting the success rate is even lower.
This is lame but I can't access the NEJM site because they aren't free. I've had some people ask some specific questions, but until I can check it by using the "old fashioned internet" (ie; trudging over to the library magazine section) I won't know more.
The specific drugs mentioned are Paxil, effexor and prozac. BUT, they mentioned 12 drugs specifically in the article, but the abstract doesn't show the list. So that's only three of them. hopefully it's just the SSRI's they're talking about and not the IMAO's.
So I'll let you know what I find out when I can get down there. Unless someone has a January 17 2007 copy of the New England Journal of Medicine lying around? :)
The one good result of this is they're talking about making the clinical trials.org site easier to access and navigate (it's impossible to find things there right now). So these studies will be required to be in there and much easier to access.
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The petition gives a good description of what this drug does.
w w w ,petitiononline,com/effexor/
(I've changed the periods to commas and spaced the beginning so he link will show)