Antidepressants, Lack of Efficacy Finally Exposed

According to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, "the effectiveness of a dozen popular antidepressants has been exaggerated by selective publication of favorable results," thus giving doctors and patients a distorted view of their effectiveness (or "efficacy"), reported the Wall Street Journal, January 17, 2008.

According to the report, a total of 74 studies were reviewed involving more than 12,000 patients taking any of a dozen antidepressants from 1987 to 2004.  Only 38 of those studies were judged positive by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and all but one of those studies was published.  Most of the studies that were found to have negative results, were not published.  As a result, doctors are unaware of the unpublished studies and are making inappropriate prescribing decisions, according to researchers led by Erick Turner, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health & Science University.

The antidepressants examined in the study were:

Celexa - by Forest Labs
Cymbalta - by Eli Lilly
Effexor - by Wyeth
Effexor - CR by Wyeth
Lexapro - by Forest Labs
Paxil - by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Paxil CR - by GSK
Prozac - by Eli Lilly
Remeron - by Schering-Plough
Serzone - by Bristol-Myers Squibb
Wellbutrin SR - by GSK
Zoloft - by Pfizer

The researchers concluded that the reported effectiveness of all 12 of the antidepressants studied were inflated by failure to publish negative studies.

News Reports regarding this study:

The Wall Street Journal
Antidepressants Under Scrutiny Over Efficacy

The New York Times
Researchers Find a Bias Toward Upbeat Findings on Antidepressants

YouTube
Fox News Clip

Antidepressant Adverse Side Effects
Lack of Efficacy