Anti-depressant's getting you down?

Well, according to this article, they aren't helping you feel better. Well, a bit of an overstatement: They found, through evaluating 50 trials on paroxetine, sertraline, venlafaxine and fluoxetine, that there was not much improvement found in patients who were put on meds versus those that were only put on a placebo pill. For (the few) third-years in Ethics on Thursday, I guess docs may be prescribing placebos even when they don't realize it. Here's the article on the always reliable Pharmalot as well as the article from the University of Hull where the study was conducted. Also, the UK (where this study originated) has decided to pour more money into training therapists to help out those that are depressed.

It should be noted that there was a difference noted in severely depressed patients, and that anti-depressants did work in quite a bit of the population, just not in an appreciable amount more than in placebo-so if it works for you or your patients-keep 'em on the meds! Thanks to Sarah Mallak for making me aware of this one.

Also, this should not stop you from prescribing meds for your pets (there's even Reconcile-literally Prozac for your dog) Also, the FDA just approved Pristiq or desvenlafaxine for use as well-the advantage over Effexor-XR is there is no ramp up period when initiating therapy. Not to ruin there marketing campaign too much, but I'll quote Conway and say "Scam." Hopefully I don't get hit with a slander lawsuit for that one.