Posted on 01/21/2008 10:08:57 AM PST by Uncledave
Antidepressants Under Scrutiny Over Efficacy Sweeping Overview Suggests Suppression of Negative Data Has Distorted View of Drugs
By DAVID ARMSTRONG and KEITH J. WINSTEIN January 17, 2008; Page D1
The effectiveness of a dozen popular antidepressants has been exaggerated by selective publication of favorable results, according to a review of unpublished data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration.
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE
As a result, doctors and patients are getting a distorted view of how well blockbuster antidepressants like Wyeth's Effexor and Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft really work, researchers asserted in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.
Since the overwhelming amount of published data on the drugs show they are effective, doctors unaware of the unpublished data are making inappropriate prescribing decisions that aren't in the best interest of their patients, according to researchers led by Erick Turner, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health & Science University. Sales of antidepressants total about $21 billion a year, according to IMS Health.
{snip}
For example, Pfizer submitted five trials on its drug Zoloft to the FDA, the study says. The drug seemed to work better than the placebo in two of them. In three other trials, the placebo did just as well at reducing indications of depression. Only the two favorable trials were published, researchers found, and Pfizer discusses only the positive results in Zoloft's literature for doctors.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If they want a do a study with a huge population size, they should examine the entire state of Wisc today after the Packer loss last night.
And this is supposed to come as a surprise to anyone?
Tom Cruise was right all along.
They work, trust me.
Wait till they start looking into statins.
“They work, trust me.”
Second that.
If they didn’t work, people would not be buying them. Sometimes you have to go through many of them BEFORE you find the one that works.
For all the hysteria that antidepressants generate, there are MANY people whose lives have been saved by them.
“For all the hysteria that antidepressants generate, there are MANY people whose lives have been saved by them.”
Mine among them....
Same here. It runs in my family - I look at it as a form of "brain serotonin diabetes" for some of us who were unfortunate enough to draw the genetic short straw.
And I know it's not just placebo - I tried every alternative and vitamin treatment under the sun first to no avail. Within 3 weeks on Zoloft I felt fine. If it were placebo all that other crap that I swallowed should've worked too.
LQ
Carolyn
I’ve been on Effexor for a few years. Seems to work well. Don’t know really. I’ve been on this stuff for so long.
I do know that when I was on Paxil I had UGLY stomach problems.
As (Night Court) Judge Stone’s father use to say: “I’m feeling MUCH better, NOW!”
They do, or can, for a while, anyway.
After Prozac lost its efficacy for me I switched to SAM-e after reading S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine for Treatment of Depression, Osteoarthritis, and Liver Disease (abstract available on net). I am greatly encouraged both with the efficacy of SAM-e and the absolute absence of side effects. Each of the SSRIs I tried over the years had some significant side effect for me (not the same one).
SAM-e is a little costly for someone like me since it is OTC and not covered by insurance but I will gladly pay the price to avoid the abject blackness of depression. I believe that in Europe it is a prescription drug.
Out of 39 unique studies considered, 28 studies were included in a meta-analysis of the efficacy of SAMe to decrease symptoms of depression.
* Compared to placebo, treatment with SAMe was associated with an improvement of approximately 6 points in the score of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression measured at 3 weeks (95 percent CI [2.2, 9.0]). This degree of improvement is statistically as well as clinically significant and is equivalent to a partial response to treatment. Too few studies were available for which a risk ratio could be calculated for either a 25 percent or 50 percent improvement in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Therefore a pooled analysis could not be done, but the results generally favored SAMe compared to placebo.
* Compared to treatment with conventional antidepressant pharmacology, treatment with SAMe was not associated with a statistically significant difference in outcomes (risk ratios for a 25 and for a 50 percent decrease in the Hamilton Rating score for depression were 0.99 and 0.93, respectively; effect size for the Hamilton Rating score for depression measured continuously was 0.08 (95 percent CI [-0.17, -0.32])).
Yep, they sure do!
BUT, only if you are on the right one for you. Some side effects can be increased depression, and increased compulsion toward suicide (among other side effects)
Mine isn’t on that list, and I too drew the genetic short straw, but now I can actually LIVE my life rather than merely being able to breath, and have a heart beat. Besides the genetic short straw, your brain can actually get broken (like any muscle, organ or bone)and fail to function properly. It doesn’t mean you are delusional, wacko, unable to reason or comprehend. It sometimes means you can’t pull up the bootstraps anymore, and march on.
The diabetes analogy was excellent. Insulin is crucial for life for anybody. Diabetics need to receive theirs in a supplementry form, and some of us need our brain chemistry in a supplementry form. Then we work just fine, same as anybody else.
Everybody’s brain puts out endorphines. Endorphines help control pain and discomfort, and allow for more peaceful feelings. To ostracise a person who isn’t able to function properly due to a chemistry conflict (ie..effing nutjob should be on meds...)is like ostracising a surgical patient for not creating enough endorphines to prevent the need for anesthesia for surgery!
But for those who end up on the wrong med with increased suicical tendencies as a side effect, the result can be not only shattering for that individual, but also for friends and loved ones when they do commit suicide. Such a thing recently happened to one of our friends when her 15 yo boy succeded in dying.
Brain chemistry is complex with a very long way to go in learning how everything works together. So, cautions do need to be in place, along with initial supervision. These are very powerful drugs, not to be trifled with.
pl
I agree with everything you said.
I think I was lucky to find the right med and dosage on the first try. It took a couple weeks to work, but then my wife started noticed me whistling in the shower one morning and started to cry, because it was the first time she hear me do that in a long time. She brought it to my attention, and I was a believer.
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