Today I heard the news that Prozac, Seroxat, Effexor and Serzone, according to a major review released today, antidepressants taken by around 40 million people worldwide, do not work.
Research undertaken by Professor Irving Kirsh, from the department of psychology at Hull University (UK), along with colleagues from the USA and Canada, and published in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine, stated that when all research data was brought together, it appeared that patients who had taken the above antidepressants had improved, but then those taking a placebo or sugar pill improved just as much.
It appears that the drug companies had not published all the research and clinical trials, and it was under the freedom of information act that this missing data of the four drugs above was included in the findings that Professor Kirsh and his colleagues, came to their conclusions.
It was written:- “Using complete data sets (including unpublished data) and a substantially larger data set of this type than has been previously reported, we find the overall effect of new-generation antidepressant medication is below recommended criteria for clinical significance,
It has been found that there are many side effects that patients suffer from taken these drugs, and it has always been assumed that the benefits outweigh these side effects. It was also stated that prescription of these drugs was withheld to those under 18 years of age, due to suicide issues.
It was interesting to note that two drug companies, (who withheld data?), Eli Lilly (Prozac) and GlaxoSmithKline (Seroxat), both defended the drugs they produce.
It was stated that anyone taking antidepressants, should not stop taking these drugs without seeking medical advice.
This led me to think about a discussion we had in Bahrain last week about evidence based research. I will write more on this subject and NLP, hypnosis, hypnotherapy and alternative methods. Click here.
Categories