Effectively Treating Depression
What works and what’s worthless
Last week in the Daily Dose, I tried to reveal to you the alarming extent of today’s depression epidemic — and the even more alarming one-sidedness of the mainstream’s treatment of it with prescription antidepressants
But now I want to shock you once more with this doozy: Antidepressant drugs don’t work — and drug makers KNOW IT! Strap yourself in, because what I’m about to expose is going to make you want to jump up and scream. Here goes
First, the semi-amusing part: A review of 96 separate trials conducted since 1979 reveals that placebos (sugar pills with no medical effects) performed just as well as — and in many cases even BETTER THAN — drugs for the treatment of depression, according to a recent report in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. That’s right — harmless, penny-a-pop sugar pills cured depression as readily as the drugs major pharmaceutical companies no doubt spent millions to create
And in one documented case, the placebo outperformed the drugs by 28%!
Now for the disturbing part: Drug makers know this, yet continue to push their addictive antidepressants down our (and our doctors’) throats anyway. Need proof? Before a drug can be approved by the FDA, its maker is required to submit two trials that show clearly positive effects. According to the article, the manufacturers of Prozac needed five separate trials to collect a pair with positive clinical results. And for the makers of Paxil and Zoloft, it took EVEN MORE.
What that means is this: Drug makers knew their antidepressants didn’t work, yet continued to subject them to trials anyway, trusting in the law of averages to eventually supply them with a pair they could submit to the FDA. It also means that antidepressant drugs and sugar pills most likely defeat depression in the same way — because the patient believes they are going to work, a phenomenon called the “placebo effect.” This begs the question: WHAT ARE THE DARNED DRUGS FOR?
The answer, of course, is profit. Because the mainstream media will likely never report what I’ve just told you (and you won’t hear it in your doctor’s office, either), people will continue to believe in and buy antidepressant drugs. Which begs another dark question — one I touched on in the last Daily Dose: Could the recent boom in depression cases be the result of a subtle campaign of suggestion in the media — a deluge of ads for antidepressants on TV, the radio, and in print? Think about it.
Actions to take: If this thought depresses you, try the proven treatments I’ve recommended before: St. John’s wort, a nice juicy steak, a vacation, and the company of friends and family who care about you. These are things worth getting addicted to.
Valuing what’s important — and knowing what’s not,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
