A recent article posted in the Guardian would grab the headline of any psychology major: “The drugs do work: antidepressants are effective, study shows”. A six-year study found that antidepressants are effective in treating mild depressive symptoms. Researchers looked at different antidepressants and compared them in efficacy (decrease in depressive symptoms) and tolerability (lack of adverse side effects). Interestingly, the most well-known antidepressant fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, was the most tolerable yet least effective drug found in the study, though it was still more effective in treating depression than the placebo. The most effective drug was amitriptyline, which was ranked 6th intolerability, possibly indicating that as the drug’s effectiveness increases, so do its unpleasant side effects.
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The study analyzed both published and unpublished data from medical drug trials sponsored by pharmaceutical drug companies and concluded that the results were not manipulated to overstate the drug’s efficacy. This is an important finding, as many in research are wary to take the data provided from pharmaceutical companies who have a financial stake in antidepressant sales at face value. Researchers hope that the study’s empirical evidence of antidepressant efficacy will help to dispel myths about depression treatment and encourage awareness of a condition that affects around 350 million people worldwide.
–Claire Callahan is a graduating senior in Applied Psychology. She is interested in anxiety and personality disorders.
A link to the article is here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/21/the-drugs-do-work-antidepressants-are-effective-study-shows