Posted by chumbawumba on May 11, 2009, at 14:22:31
In reply to Re: Antidepressants Hardly Help ?????????, posted by SLS on May 11, 2009, at 5:56:32
> This claim comes up every so often.
>
> It is untenable.
>
> The article is almost as flawed as the studies it cites. The selection procedure for subjects used in clinical trials of antidepressants almost never includes a diagnostic processing of each candidate thoroughly enough to conclude with certainty that the investigators are treating the right disease - major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD). That's why it is so often observed that the more severe depressions benefit the most. A much higher proportion of these subjects have the genuine diseases being investigated. Of course, this does not indicate that less severe cases of MDD or BD respond to treatment. It is just that severe cases are more likely to be the real thing when selection criteria are so liberally inclusive.Actually there was a different study you may have seen that addresses this issue and they found that when study inclusion criteria are narrow (like they are in Phase III clinical trials), the results seem to be skewed towards antidepressants. When they are broad so as to reflect more real life clinical practice conditions, efficacy drops.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2008.08071027v1
poster:chumbawumba
thread:895119
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090505/msgs/895193.html