These Antidepressants Are Most Effective, Study Says

Millions of people take antidepressants for depression. But there’s long been debate over just how effective the medications actually are. On Wednesday, a large new study provides evidence that antidepressants are more effective than placebo at treating acute depression in adults. The study, published in the journal The Lancet, looked at the published data from 522 randomized controlled trials testing 21 different types of antidepressants. The study authors also reached out to pharmaceutical companies and study authors for additional unpublished study data. All told, the data collection included 116,477 men and women, ages 18 and older, who had depression and who were treated for at least eight weeks. The researchers found that every type of antidepressant they studied was more effective at lessening symptoms of depression over time than placebo. They considered a drug “effective” if it reduced depression symptoms by 50% or more. The researchers expected to find that some antidepressants would prove to be better than placebo, but they were surprised that every drug was more effective, says lead study author Dr. Andrea Cipriani of the University of Oxford in the UK. “We were open to any result,” he says. “This is why we can say this is the final answer to the controversy.” MORE: A New Hope For Depression Though researchers found that every drug was more effective than placebo, some were more effective than others. The most effective w...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime Mental Health/Psychology Source Type: news