How Helpful Are Antidepressant Medications?

More than 100 million prescriptions for antidepressants are written in this country each year. And a new study suggests that, except for patients suffering from the most severe forms of depression, most of those prescriptions are not necessary.

Most patients can benefit as much from other forms of treatments, such as physical exercise, psychotherapy, as they can from antidepressant medication.

The 47 clinical trials analyzed in Kirsch's study include data never before made public. It comes from research submitted to the FDA during the drug approval process, but not published in medical journals.

Research into the efficacy of medications is funded by the pharmaceutical companies that are going to profit from them. And as a result, some of the data that are less favorable to the medications just aren't published.

Drug industry reaction came from companies including GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the antidepressant Paxil. Quote, "The authors' interpretation is incorrect, and is clearly at odds with the benefits of antidepressants routinely observed in actual clinical practice," unquote.

And Columbia University researcher Kelly Posner says this new study does not address one of depression's worst consequences.

Since we've had antidepressants, the suicide rate has dropped across the world, reversing a trend prior to their introduction.

Posner says antidepressants have improved the lives of millions of people.