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Dr. Mercola
March 11 2008
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Antidepressants Are No Better Than Placebos

depression, antidepressantsAntidepressant drugs, including the best-selling Prozac, simply do not work as advertised, according to a comprehensive review by U.S. and Canadian researchers.

After examining all data available for the drugs -- including clinical trials that manufacturers did not publish at the time -- it was found that patients taking the drugs improved just as much as those taking placebo pills. The only exception was among severely depressed patients, who improved slightly more on the drugs than the placebos.

This study is unique in that it is the first time a study has been done using a full set of data for the antidepressants Prozac, Seroxat, Effexor, and Serzone.

"Using complete data sets (including unpublished data) and a substantially larger data set of this type than has been previously reported, we find the overall effect of new-generation antidepressant medication is below recommended criteria for clinical significance," the authors wrote.

Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:
It’s been known for years that placebos, or sugar pills, work just as well as antidepressants, but it is still amazing what comes out when you are actually able to see the whole picture. In this case, after the researchers got their hands on all of those unpublished studies (by taking advantage of freedom of information rules from the Food and Drug Administration) it came out that antidepressant drugs don’t work.

They don’t work. Yet, they are being prescribed to 118 million Americans each year -- and the four most commonly prescribed are also three of those that this study found to be just as effective as popping a sugar pill: Prozac, Effexor and Serzone (Paxil is the fourth).

Now, here’s something to think about: there are 118 million prescriptions for these drugs each year, yet, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression affects approximately 14.8 million American adults in any given year.

Who is receiving the 100+ million doses of “extra” antidepressants? People with pain, people with anxiety, people who want to quit smoking, people with sleep problems, fibromyalgia, overreactive bladders, and even some people who simply want to lose weight.

In short, there are large numbers of people who are taking these drugs, and paying for these drugs, for wildly different problems, when perhaps a simple tool that they already possess could do the same thing, for free, a sugar pill. But what would work even better is to use another solution that is also free: your mind.

Can Depression be Treated With Your Mind?

Depression is a serious illness and one that clearly needs to be addressed, as it is the cause of loads of pain and suffering. But the reason why some people experience benefits after taking an antidepressant drugs is not, as this study proves, because of the drug itself. It is because the person believed that the pill would work.

This is why, when given a sugar pill, it is possible to experience relief from a wide range of symptoms, as long as you believe the pill will help you.

This placebo effect has, in fact, been proven to be real in one of the most prestigious journals in the world, Science.

Most doctors only superficially acknowledge the power of placebo and do not even begin to fully utilize the power that it represents.

Your subconscious mind is basically neutral. It will implement just about any command that you continuously feed it and sincerely believe in. This concept is explained very clearly in this great video on The New Biology, but the bottom line is that if you believe something will heal you, then there’s a good chance, even a 100 percent chance, that it will.

So, why spend money on an antidepressant that has potentially dangerous side effects, when you can use your mind instead?

To do this, I suggest using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). For serious problems such as depression, it would be prudent to contact a health care professional who is trained in the technique. You can use Gary Craig's list of EFT Practitioner Referrals to do this.

What else can you do to help ease depression? Here are three additional tips:
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Community Comments ( 59 )
 		Comment on this Article
  
  
Islander
 [ Joined on 03/07 ] [ Posted on February 28, 2008 ]
19 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
There has been a great deal of buzz recently about the over-prescribing of SSRIs. How is this explained?
• the DSM-IV, which labels as depression, any symptoms that persist for more than two weeks
• attitudes of patients who think a pill will fix everything
• attitudes of doctors, who have been trained to believe in medication

Over the past 6 months or so, an increasing number of news items have reported both the recall of dangerous drugs and the ineffectiveness of certain drugs. Recentin, a proposed lung cancer drug in trials, is the latest failure. Is the pharmaceutical industry losing its credibility? Could that account for the growing urgent outcry to vaccinate everybody against everything? (The latest is a vaccine for drug addiction!) Is Big Pharma afraid of seeing a dip in its obscene profits?

It's important to make a distinction between true clinical depression and the temporary blues resulting from a death in the family, a failed relationship, job loss and other unhappy events. Of course we feel bad, and these feelings may well continue for weeks. They are normal and natural. How can we experience happiness and joy if we never feel the opposite? We need to reverse the mindset that we are entitled to feel happy happy happy all the time and never experience pain or sorrow. Pain and sorrow are part of the human condition and have led to some of the world's greatest works of art. Grief and joy are both strands in the complexity of life.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
T_rex
 [ Joined on 06/07 ]  [ Posted on March 11, 2008]
-1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

SSRI's not only do not work, they are extremely dangerous. They induce the psychosis and agressive behaviour that has been producing the long series of murder-suicides and school violence of recent years.
Mercola
  
DrMom
 [ Joined on 11/06 ]  [ Posted on March 11, 2008]
6 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola

I can only speak for my own experience.

I was reduced to a non-functioning mother of 4 who lost 45 pounds because I could not eat at the age of 34 due to extreme panic/anxiety attacks that caused symptoms such as nausea, & pain.  After tying many other ways to control this I reluctantly took antidepressants and with in a few weeks began to get my life back. I hated taking the drugs but they DID work. I got off of them permantely after a while and no longer need them. I do believe though that they are over used and over prescribed.

  
  
curlilox
 [ Joined on 08/07 ] [ Posted on February 28, 2008 ]
15 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
The drug companies are only doing what they do best: FLEECING THE SHEEP AND LEAVING THEM NAKED!
Does anyone really believe big Pharma is selling these drugs for the benefit of the people?? I learned this in school and my pharmacist dad even admitted this to me the way they bring in new drugs.  Big pharma takes an existing drug and changes it one molecule so it can't be labeled the same, and then tries to market it. If the drug causes incontinence and dizziness, they find a way to give it to people who already have those symptoms.  It doesn't have to work, just as long as they can dupe doctors into prescribing it!
 [ Reply ]
  
  
shaneperrone
 [ Joined on 11/07 ] [ Posted on February 28, 2008 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
I know alot of kids at my school are on antidepressants, call me
paranoid... but i have seen the effects and i know a lot of them have
weapons, so i preplanned escape routes from any point in the school for
not only me but the entire class i am with... i pray i never have to
put them into effect.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
etbsndc
 [ Joined on 08/06 ]  [ Posted on March 11, 2008]
2 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola

Shaneperrone:  Some would call that paranoia; others would call it wisdom.  What a sorry state of affairs that one would even have to contemplate such possible actions for self-preservation.  I wish you well.
  
  
Charisse
 [ Joined on 10/07 ] [ Posted on February 27, 2008 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
The article DID say that the exception was people who were SEVERLY depressed....the article also states

says Kirsch. "This study raises serious issues that need to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported."

DUH!!!!!     The FDA  and EFT....they go perfect together!!(at least it helps my blood pressure whenever I read anything FDA related!)
 [ Reply ]
  
  
LadyPam
 [ Joined on 02/08 ] [ Posted on February 29, 2008 ]
11 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
Of course bad things happening can bring us down, and those feelings can take many weeks or even months of grieving before they fade.  One good doctor once refused to prescribe anything (back when I wanted that kind of thing), not even a sedative or a sleeping pill, saying that with everything that had just happened to me, he'd be extremely worried if I WASN'T depressed. His prescription: look after yourself, cry, sleep, cry some more and in a few weeks it won't feel quite as bad then in a few months, etc.

There is a difference between elated-happy and simply content.  I would say though, about great works of art and literature, that some have questioned the value of 'celebrating anguish', and that the greatest artists (and comedians!) often DO suffer from chronic, long term depression - or sometimes bipolar disorder.  After all, extraordinary talent is by definition not normal.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Reesacat
 [ Joined on 01/07 ]  [ Posted on February 29, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Well said, LadyPam!
  
  
mama bear
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on February 28, 2008 ]
9 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
How about "Antidepressants Are WORSE Than Placebos" for the headline?  A common thread among all of the so called school shooters is that they were on antidepressants or had recently stopped taking them. The other day, I had to explain to my 11 yr old why they have safety lock down drills at school now and why we didn't have them when I was in the 5th grade. 
 [ Reply ]
  
  
MikeyRosen
 [ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on March 11, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Novice User

I don't agree with this.  I went through a difficult period once and tried them.  They helped knock me back up again.  

 [ Reply ]
  
  
OS
 [ Joined on 01/07 ] [ Posted on March 11, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Novice User

If it were not for antidepressants, I'd be in a pine box.  

 [ Reply ]
  
  
EQ
 [ Joined on 03/07 ] [ Posted on March 1, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
So, can one get placebo side effects also?  ;-}
 [ Reply ]
  
  
detoxer
 [ Joined on 03/08 ] [ Posted on March 1, 2008 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Novice User
As the director of Novus Medical Detox, I often see patients who are on
alcohol or opioids, central nervous system depressants, also taking
antidepressants.  When they detox they find they don't need the
antidepressants.



This is good news because a Swedish study showed that 52% of the 2006
suicides by women on antidepressants.  Since antidepressants work
no better than placebos and are less effective than exercise in dealing
with depression.



There is a prescription drug epidemic and these are leaders in the list of terribe abuses.



Steve Hayes

http://novusdetox.com
 [ Reply ]
  
  
HeatherM
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on March 10, 2008 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Novice User

The news reports I heard on this subject stated that antidepressants are equal to placebos when taken for mild to moderate depression caused by a life event.

It it wrong to say "they don't work.", implying in all clinical situations, they're useless.  Severely depressed people do need them to function. I've seen many severely depressed & suicidal people talking on TV about their need for antidepressants to treat their chemical brain imbalance & how they saved their life.

I worked with a bipolar woman who couldn't work, until she  went on a tricyclilc and lithium. When her meds were changed to an SSRI & lithium, she had to be hospitalised, due to a severe relapse. I have a friend who has suicidal  thoughts without medication & a sister-in-law who became comatose at work, during severe depression during a divorce, & had to be taken home and go on sick leave. She recovered with Zoloft & is too scared to go off it.

My father suffered anxiety & went for walks in the middle of the night when suffering depression & anxiety after extensive surgery on his face for skin cancer. He needed antidepressants, especially to sleep at night. He's now in a nursing home with brain damage after a severe stroke, & needs antidepressants. He's not capable of doing EFT.              Of course if all mentally ill people tried, and were cured, with EFT , supplements for the brain &/or counceling, that would be great. But I've seen antid.'s WORK, not the placebo effect.  

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
lozza68
 [ Joined on 03/08 ]  [ Posted on March 14, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

be very careful taking zoloft it depletes the magnesium levels in your blood and can mimic heart attack symtoms
  
  
triciamc
 [ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on February 29, 2008 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
Islander, your comment - It's important to make a distinction between true clinical depression and the temporary blues resulting from a death in the family, a failed relationship, job loss and other unhappy events - is bang on the button.
These drugs are handed out too freely in some cases where counseling or other approaches could be used. This study has been long needed and I admire the scientists involved. It is often hard to stand up against big pharma.
The results of this study have been widely published by the media in Ireland and the U.K. I hope we don't see a large incidence of too many people deciding themselves to withdraw form taking the drug immediately. We know the effect that could have.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
LadyPam
 [ Joined on 02/08 ]  [ Posted on February 29, 2008]
6 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
I agree that counselling or psychotherapy is often more useful; I paid for it when I could.  I definitely fall into the clinical depression category.  The diagnosis is 'double depression': cyclical acute depressive phases with underlying dysthymia. 

Being a poverty-trapped single parent doesn't help, especially when one previously had good salary, company car, partner, friends and a social life: who wants to be around a chronic misery who can never afford a babysitter?

Of course it was aggravated by things like job loss, loss of a partner and loss of home (all three in one week, famously), and other major stress experiences, but it's always been there.

However, I am surprised to read that none of the drugs 'work'.  I certainly felt different after two weeks on Prozac, back when I trusted doctors; calmly capable, had energy, etc.  This lasted only a few weeks until the sleepwalking started, then the time-skipping absences; witnesses said I appeared catatonic for up to 30 seconds and I knew that I'd missed something. I was weaned off Prozac and tried on a succession of other SSRIs, and other things. 

I asked the psychiatrists (they never seem to stay in one place long in the NHS Mental Health Teams and I seldom saw the same one twice) about psychotherapy and they put me on a waiting list. I would have to wait at least a year.  Psychiatrists in the NHS system provide only allopathic therapy.  One of my friends is one, a senior consultant, and all he does is write prescriptions and get called out to section people.

After I took myself off the drugs, I was removed from the psychotherapy waiting list! An annual winter course of St John's wort helps, + a light box. EFT so far doesn't seem to have helped but I will perservere.
  
  
Reesacat
 [ Joined on 01/07 ] [ Posted on February 28, 2008 ]
5 Points