New meta-analysis finds antidepressants are not effective for most people

There is little reason to prescribe antidepressants to the majority of depressed patients, according to a group of experts, led by Irving Kirsch, a professor at the University of Hull in the UK.

In a study analysing data from clinical trials of antidepressants, leading psychologists found that the products have no clinically-significant effects in all cases, apart from a small group of the most severely depressed patients. The paper, Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, has been published in the February 26 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.

The researchers analysed data submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration for the licensing of four new-generation antidepressants, Prozac (fluoxetine), Efexor (venlafaxine), nefazodone and Seroxat (paroxetine), for which full data, published and unpublished, were available. Data sets for some Celexa (citalopram) and Zoloft (sertraline) studies were incomplete, and were therefore excluded from the main analyses in order to avoid publication bias, the authors explain.