They don't look particularly effective to me, but that lack of 'understanding' of zoloft and other drugs might be due to falsifying original clinical data by the companies - as explained here:
http://www.socialaudit.org.uk/58096-DH%20to%20WARK.htm
(Extract of correspondence from Professor David Healy to the UK drug regulatory body, the MHRA.)
"...Reports on these trials list patients who have committed suicide, and list those patients as being of a certain age and as having committed suicide at a certain point during the trial, when the patient in question has a very different age and the event in question happened at a completely different point during the trial".
"Miscoding of suicidal act as emotional lability."
" Lilly have resorted to treatment non-response and a range of other headings to code what happened."
"...records on Prozac, Seroxat/Paxil and Lustral/Zoloft, you will find cases of homicidality coded as nausea for instance."
"Discontinuation of patients from studies for primary adverse effects such as nausea when in fact there has been a suicidal act;"
"But it is also worth adding specifically that this has been a feature of all trials of Zoloft/Lustral, Seroxat/Paxil and Prozac throughout, as far as I can make out... "
Difficult for anyone to "understand" zoloft (or any other drug where corruption has taken a part) when they aren't given the facts, evidence, ACCURATE clinical data results to begin with, I would think.
"The link between violence and antidepressants is unclear"
Its getting clearer to some experts, those who look.
When visiting the site itself, the following contains links to each article:
http://www.lucire.com.au
"...Risks, Benefits and Consequences
1. SSRIs: Forensic Issues. Risk Benefit Analysis and Potential for Litigation In Australia. Duty to warn? (Powerpoint) Presented at RANZCP Forensic Section Conference October 2003 Geelong
2. Do SSRIs cause Suicide (2004) (Powerpoint).
3. Four seminal papers on SSRIs and their complications.
Ronald Wm. Maris, PH.D. - Suicide and Neuropsychiatric Adverse Effects of SSRI Medications: Methodological Issues. Daubert : Competent Science on SSRI - Suicide (2002).
David Healy, MD; Chris Whitaker, MSc - Antidepressants and suicide: risk-benefit conumdrums (2003).
Peter R. Breggin - Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): A review and analysis (2004).
The Work of David Healy has informed all these papers.
4. SSRIs: Do they cause suicide? The Science: Daubert Admissible evidence. Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences, May 19, 2004. In Press. Also Interantional conference of medical law, Sydney
5. SSRIs and their effects on Mental Health Presentations: A plausible hypothesis. ,(PowerPoint) Presented at RANZCP Forensic Section Conference October 2004, Fremantle.
6. New Drugs New Problems (PowerPoint) presented Section of Forensic psychiatry, April 9 2005.
7. New Drugs New Problems: Medico-political expose of the suicide crisis in Mental Health, Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences.
8. The Ethics of the Solitary Empiricist: How PhaRMAs changed common human unhappiness into a deficit disease. Blackheath Philosophy Forum May 9 2005. Do Second Generation Antidepressants Cause Suicide? A Daubert Hearing. Health, Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences. May 19. 2004.
9. Effects of Second Generation Antidepressants and Antipsychotics on Mental Health Services in Australia Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 40th Conference, Convention Centre, Sydney 22 to 27 May. 2005.
10. Akathisia and Crime: Product Liability issues. Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 40th conference, Convention Centre, Sydney 22 to 27 May. 2005..."
On the same page:
"Dr Lucire is a forensic psychiatrist....
...[her] field of experience includes issues in:
criminality,
child custody,
compensation,
common law,
credibility and reliability,
Daubert standard of evidence,
early health-based retirement,
evaluation of disability and injuries,
insurance law,
superannuation,
differentiating true from fabricated sexual abuse allegations,
textual analysis to identify confabulation, and
product liability,
false advertising by pharmacutical companies,
medical negligence,
pharmacological injury.
Her clients have included the major institutions in Australia, legal aid services, prosecutors, claimants and defendants, major Insurers of Workman's' and Workers Compensation, victims' compensation boards, superannuation boards, commercial, public and private liability insurers.
She practices in both criminal and civil litigation, the latter a vexed area which tends to be more influenced by political than theoretical considerations. Her efforts include in this area revolve around the provision of an accurate diagnosis, so that causation is correctly attributed.
Dr Lucire believes that it is only from this starting point of diagnosis of organic or functional disorder that causation can be attributed. Functional disorder can and should be differentiated from malingering. By the time a case comes up for settlement, the original symptoms of injury have often been replaced by 'functional overlay' which causes confusion for the physical specialists.
Her review of those clients who are not obviously 'psychiatric' is useful and use can be made of such evaluations by many defendant and plaintiff clients..."
It becomes clear that Dr Lucire is very hot on Daubert's standard of evidence (real standards, real evidence) when assessing drugs, which is nothing like pharmaceutical "evidence" (falsified, hidden).
And, to be really serious, you would need to accurately consider the 3 criteria for casuality.