Before You Quit Antidepressants ...

Last week, The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study questioning the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs. The drugs are useful in cases of severe depression, it said. But for most patients, those with mild to moderate cases, the most commonly used antidepressants are generally no better than a placebo.

For the millions of people who take these drugs, and the doctors who prescribe them, this provocative claim had to be confusing, if not alarming. It contradicted literally hundreds of well-designed trials, not to mention considerable clinical experience, showing antidepressants to be effective for a wide array of depressed patients.

But on close inspection, the new study does not stand up to that mountain of earlier evidence. To understand why, it helps to look at the way it was conducted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/health/12mind.html?hpw

not studies to know. it is important to look at how these things are put together.

They've been handing out SSRIs like candy for just about any mental malaise.

on edit: I am taking an SSRI for depression & anxiety and I am not knocking their use when the need has been seriously considered.