Socialized healthcare in the states is the pharma's getting everyone medicated (like soma in brave new world). All these school shootings kids are coming off meds.
http://www.breggin.com/SSRIinduced.htm
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6fce3400-e...nclick_check=1
Study casts doubt on anti-depressants
By Salamander Davoudi
Published: February 25 2008 19:25 | Last updated: February 25 2008 19:25
Prescribing anti-depressants to the vast majority of patients is
futile, as the drugs have little or no impact at all, according to
researchers.
Almost 50 clinical trials were reviewed by psychologists from the
University of Hull who found that new-generation anti-depressants
worked no better than a placebo – a dummy pill – for mildly depressed
patients.
Even the trials that suggested some clinical benefit for the most
severely depressed patients did not produce convincing evidence.
Professor Irving Kirsch from the university's pyschology department
said: "The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos
and patients taking anti-depressants is not very great.
"This means that depressed people can improve without chemical
treatments. Given these results, there seems little reason to
prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely
depressed patients."
The researchers focused on four widely prescribed anti-depressants and
the clinical trials that were submitted to win licensing approval from
the US Food and Drug Administration.
The drugs included fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Efexor), and
Paroxetine (Seroxat).
All belong to a family of drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake
Inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs have become popular over the past 15
years as doctors consider them to be safer than tricyclic drugs that
carried a high risk of overdose. In 2006, 31m prescriptions for
anti-depressants were issued in England, up 27 per cent since 2001.
Alison Cobb, policy officer at mental health charity Mind, said: "This
study represents a serious challenge to the predominance of
pharmacological treatments for depression. Anti-depressants have been
shown to help many people, but by no means all."
"Too many GPs are being forced to dish out drugs because they don't
have proper access to psychological therapies services which are
recommended by Nice."
Mind is urging GPs to consider alternative therapies such as exercise
– particularly outdoor exercise – which it believes has shown to be
very effective in combating depression.
However, Dr Gary Bell, consultant psychiatrist at Capio Nightingale
Hospitals, the provider of private psychiatry treatment, contested the
conclusions of the Hull research. "Anti-depressants are one of the
great breakthroughs in the treatment of depression in last 20 to 30
years," he said.
"They do not always suit everybody but the results are often
life-saving. People who do studies do not have the hands-on experience
of using these medicines."
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, at least one person
in five will suffer from a depressive illness at some point.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008