First, I want to say that antidepressants work for me. In the past four years, I have found myself in a suicidal tailspin twice and both times antidepressants brought me back to safety. I believe that I may not be here if it wasn't for these drugs.
That said, I had life-squandering depressive symptoms off-and-on for about 20 years before I went to a psychopharmacologist, so I understand people's reticence to go on medication. I also know that, for me, drugs alone are not a cure. Medication has pulled me out of the abyss so that I could get busy getting better through therapy (a longer, slower haul).
Recently, a friend who is struggling with depression and wondering if he should go on medication informed me that a lot of people were saying that antidepressants did not work better than placebo in scientific studies. So I did some quick googling and found this Newsweek article from a couple of years ago entitled, "The Depressing News About Antidepressants."
This article, written by Sharon Begley, introduces the reader to Irving Kirsch, who researched the studies showing the efficacy of antidepressants and found that even these studies showed that antidepressants only worked about 25% better than placebo. Now, this was a couple of years ago, and there may be a great deal of research refuting Kirsch's findings today, but my friend's knowledge of it and the easy google search tell me that this article may be affecting whether or not people choose to go on medication today.
Begley says that, being a mental health writer, she has a moral dilemma when approached by friends about whether to go on antidepressants. This because of her knowledge of Kirsch's findings. However, in her 5 page article, there are two sentences that should help her out of her quandry:
"Only in patients with very severe symptoms (scoring 23 or above on the standard scale) was there a statistically significant drug benefit. Such patients account for about 13 percent of people with depression."
HELLO! (Waving hands in air) That's the kind of depression that you die from. The kind that my grandfather probably died from. When I'm wrestling the black dog, I score way above 23 on the Burn's scale. So maybe Begley should simply check her friends' depression rating before recommending (or not) medication. (And remove the "Only" from the beginning of the above sentence.)
I can't help but feel that this article is somewhat weighted by the social stigma of depression as being something one can think herself out of. By definition, you cannot snap out of it on your own. Thank goodness there's medication that works for many of us who suffer.
