[HN Gopher] Antidepressants are not associated with improved qua...
___________________________________________________________________
Antidepressants are not associated with improved quality of life in
the long run
Author : FollowingTheDao
Score : 16 points
Date : 2022-04-20 21:17 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencedaily.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencedaily.com)
| octokatt wrote:
| > The study was not able to separately analyze any subtypes or
| varying severities of depression. The authors say that future
| studies should investigate the use of non-pharmacological
| depression interventions used in combination with
| antidepressants.
|
| > The authors add: "Although we still need our patients with
| depression to continue using their antidepressant medications,
| long-term studies evaluating the actual impact for
| pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions on these
| patients' quality of life is needed. With that being said, the
| role of cognitive and behavioral interventions on the long term-
| management of depression needs to be further evaluated in an
| efforts to improve the ultimate goal of care for these patients;
| improving their overall quality of life."
|
| This was not a fantastically designed, rigorous study. I would be
| interested to see if this is enough to follow-up with a better
| study, though, as anti-depressants tend to be barely better than
| placebo [1], with a lot of ugly side effects.
|
| *IMPORTANT NOTE*: If you are currently on antidepressants or any
| mental health medication and they're working for you, do not let
| this article or comment section influence you to go off meds
| without talking to your doctor.
|
| [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4172306/
| braingravy wrote:
| Fascinating, but not incredibly surprising considering that many
| commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs fail to beat a placebo.
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4592645/pdf/wps...
|
| (Compare the black bar under 'antidepressants' to the placebo
| bar.)
|
| This isn't to say you shouldn't take antidepressants if you have
| MDD; it's worth a shot. However, it should make us curious as
| intelligent consumers of research of what the actual remediation
| of depressive symptoms is caused by(in both placebo and AD
| groups).
|
| Personally, I'd say it's likely that the individual is the one
| making a difference in recovery from MDD, not the chemical.
|
| All that said, this post is absolutely not meant to shame
| antidepressant use: Depression is a potentially life threatening
| illness. I'm very happy for those who have over come it and I am
| not against antidepressant use in any way. It's the best we've
| got (and they works quite well in conjunction with therapy btw!
| Far above placebo).
|
| But from a scientific perspective, it's experimentally unclear if
| antidepressant drugs are anywhere near as efficacious as major
| pharmaceutical companies (with major financial incentives) say
| they are.
|
| It's worth noting this is being currently debated in the field.
| There does seem to be a somewhat consistent effect of AD drugs
| performing slightly above placebo (see study linked above).
| However, it's not clear if that effect is due to recognizable
| side effects that antidepressants have (allowing participants to
| 'unblind' themselves), or if antidepressants are indeed slightly
| more effective than a place I. Due to the nature of the illness,
| it's been assumed that it's worth it to keep prescribing these
| drugs to those who suffer from depression.
|
| Edit: If you are dealing with depression, please seek help. Doing
| so will improve your life, and the lives of those around you.
| Life is too short to suffer without help.
| derbOac wrote:
| This is an important study but I think has to be interpreted
| carefully. They verify an effect on depression symptoms but don't
| find an effect on overall rated quality of life. It would have to
| be replicated but is broadly consistent with some findings that
| psychiatric treatment effects don't always have the boundaries
| you'd think they would. It would be important to understand what
| differs between the depression measures and QoL and what of that
| is being moved by the antidepressants.
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| Original Study:
|
| https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
| ncmncm wrote:
| You can tell without even reading it that something is deeply
| wrong with their methods.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-04-20 23:02 UTC)