In 2008, a controversial meta-analysis of antidepressant trials appeared in the open-access journal PLoS that attributed more than 80% of the therapeutic benefit of antidepressants to placebo effects. Worse, there was no meaningful difference between antidepressants and placebos in the degree of clinical response as measured on a standardized depression score (HRSD). Continue reading →

When I started reading the medical literature on antidepressants, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d read it all before. Study after study showed that antidepressants worked to treat mild to moderate depression. It didn’t seem to matter what class of antidepressant was tested or even which agent. Not even the dose seemed to matter. In virtually every trial, 50 to 60% of the patients treated with antidepressants improved. Continue reading →