Depression and its medical treatment

 

The effectiveness of Antidepressant drugs

A recent study:

Initial severity and antidepressant benefits: A meta-analysis of data submitted

to the Food and Drug Administration

by Kirsch I, Deacon, B.J, Huedo-Medina T.B, Scoboria A, Moore T.J, and Johnson B.T

Published in PLoS Medicine, February 2008

URL: http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

has found

"Irving Kirsch and colleagues used Freedom of Information legislation in the United States

(see the methods section) to get access to both published and unpublished clinical

trials of several SSRI/SNRI antidepressants, including fluoxetine (Prozac), that had been

submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval. Analyzing the full dataset,

which included studies of varying duration and quality, the researchers found

no clinically significant difference between a patient’s response to the placebo and

these antidepressants for most depressed people.Their analysis did find clinically relevant

effects for a subset of the most severely depressed patients." (1)

So much for evidence based medicine.

Professor Kirsch's comments can be seen on the ABC's program "All in the Mind" what a mind blowing

program.

 

It just adds weight to the name of this web site: headbacktohealth.com The main issue being your have

to use your own head/brain to work out what makes sense in terms of your health.

 

The more information you gather the better.

 

It would seem that the truth about treatments always comes out eventually. Patients as health care

consumers need to search out all of the facts. Professor Kirsch deserves the gratitude of all patients

not just those on antidepressants. His group's work points the way to get at the truth behind some of

these very popular treatments that have government sanctions as effective.

 

Other podcasts of interest are:

Hear what Professor Kirsch had to say on "All in the Mind" broadcast 23 May 2009

http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/player_launch.pl?s=rn/allinthemind&d=rn/allinthemind/audio&r=aim

_23052009_2856.ram&w=aim_23052009_28M.asx&t=23%20May%202009&p=1

 

http://download.guardian.co.uk/audio/1204550654696/7794/gdn.sci.bg.080303.science_weekly.mp3

When you first start this one up, you may think it is a dud link. Be patient they come through eventually.

 

References

1)      http://www.plos.org/cms/node/33

 

 

Anti depressant drug effectiveness

 

 

www.headbacktohealth.com
Health - Naturally
Mornington & Olinda Victoria 
 
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Sitemap      Index       Disclaimer      New Patient Forms      Peter's Bio     Contact us                                                              updated Feb 2010
Sitemap      Index       Disclaimer      New Patient Forms      Peter's Bio     Contact us                                                              updated Feb 2010