The Village Voice
By Foster Kramer
May 25, 2010

An excellent Newsweek cover story today brings the sad news that antidepressants depressingly don’t work. Which is sad, because – among other reasons – a lot of people use them. What’s even worse, however, is that they work less than placebos.

Sharon Begley writes that last month, The Journal of the American Medical Association published “landmark” work that the pros of taking anti-depressants aren’t that much greater than people on placebos of antidepressants, who think they’re taking drugs to get happy. Essentially, Begley writes, “antidepressants are basically expensive Tic Tacs.” Even more, the drug companies were like, “Well, you’re (basically) right, but you are all unique snowflakes, and that’s what keeps us in business!”

They point out that the average is made up of some patients in whom there is a true drug effect of antidepressants and some in whom there is not. As a spokesperson for Lilly (maker of Prozac) said, “Depression is a highly individualized illness,” and “not all patients respond the same way to a particular treatment.”

Read entire article:  http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/05/newsweek_antide.php