Not Benzos, but . . . . .

[[Co...]]

. . . . still of interest!

 

In the past few minutes, British newspapers have released a story concerning research carried out at Hull University into the effectiveness of SSRI's. Of course, GlaxoSmithKline have immediately rubbished the research. The research is published today in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine.

 

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Prozac, used by 40m people, does not work say scientists

 

Sarah Boseley, health editor The Guardian, Tuesday February 26 2008

 

Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class, according to a major review released today.

 

The study examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill.

 

When all the data was pulled together, it appeared that patients had improved - but those on placebo improved just as much as those on the drugs.

 

The only exception is in the most severely depressed patients, according to the authors - Prof Irving Kirsch from the department of psychology at Hull University and colleagues in the US and Canada. But that is probably because the placebo stopped working so well, they say, rather than the drugs having worked better.

 

The complete article.

 

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And from The Times:

 

February 26, 2008, David Rose.

 

Depression drugs don’t work, finds data review

 

Millions of people taking commonly prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac and Seroxat might as well be taking a placebo, according to the first study to include unpublished evidence.

 

The new generation of antidepressant drugs work no better than a placebo for the majority of patients with mild or even severe depression, comprehensive research of clinical trials has found.

 

The researchers said that the drug was more effective than a placebo in severely depressed patients but that this was because of a decreased placebo effect.

 

The complete article.

[[el...]]

There was a similar study here a few years ago and it got amazingly little press. It compared placebo, ssri's and Cognitive behavioral therapy. . Even self-cbt, like reading a book on cbt.

Placebos worked about the same, and cbt worked as well or better than ssri's.

[[si...]]

there was also study results released about a month or so ago with psychiatric meds vs placebo meds - they found mentally ill people given psychiatric drugs became more violent then mentally ill people given placebos - that study was also done in england.

 

most likely drug manufacturers will recommending yanking people off real fast throwing people into serious withdrawals and then they will say "see" they are much worse off w/o drugs.

[[el...]]

 

most likely drug manufacturers will recommending yanking people off real fast throwing people into serious withdrawals and then they will say "see" they are much worse off w/o drugs.

 

Silver, that's a real possibility. Yikes.