New research shows antidepressants have same effect as placebo pills for 85% of people
Antidepressants are quickly prescribed to patients who are suffering from depression, but new research suggests that this popular prescription medication has the same effect on most people as a placebo pill.
A study published in the British Medical Journal found that antidepressants have about the same effect on the majority of people as placebos. In 85% of clinical rials, there was little difference between antidepressants and placebos.
This minimal difference can be explained by two factors: most people experience a small improvement in their moods on antidepressants as compared to a placebo, or a small group of people experience a larger effect from the antidepressant, which is offset by the large group who do not experience any effect at all.
Only 15% experienced a larger effect from the antidepressant that they wouldn't have experienced from the placebo. “About 15% of participants have a substantial antidepressant effect beyond a placebo effect in clinical trials," the study reads.
The researchers accounted for factors such as age, sex, and baseline severity of depression when they were conducting the analysis and the trial was double-blind and placebo-controlled. The data included 242 studies of 73,388 participants between 1979 and 2016.
It's becoming clearer that depression, in the vast majority of cases, can and should be treated with lifestyle and diet. Antidepressants may not be nearly as powerful as we have been led to believe all these years.
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