Depression Drugs Work In Half Of Patients


by David Abrams - Date: 2007-01-31 - Word Count: 251 Share This!

A thirty five million dollar taxpayer-funded study was the largest trial of its kind ever conducted according to an article in the Washington Post March 23, 2006? Depression drugs work in just half of patients." The study asked what patients care about most- and whether depression can be made to disappear altogether.

The trial stated " antidepressants fail to cure the symptoms of major depression in half of all patients with the disease even if they receive the best possible care, according to a definitive government study released yesterday." The article further stated that "a significant number of patients continue to experience symptoms such as sadness, low energy, and hopelessness after intensive treatment, even as a bout an equal number report and end to such problems-a result that quickly lent itself to interpretations that the glass was either half empty or half full."

David Rubinow, a professor and the chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the results are an "illuminating and disconcerting" window into the affliction that is thought to fuel many of the 30,000 suicides committed each year in the United States.

According to government statistics, depression afflicts 15 million Americans a year. One hundred eighty nine million prescriptions for antidepressants were written last year, and the disease costs the nation eighty three billion dollars annually because of treatment costs, lost productivity, absenteeism, and suicide.

If you would like to read the article in totality please go to http://www.thewashingtonpost.com and search for depression in January 2007.


Related Tags: depression, treatment, drugs, sadness, suicide, helplessness, anti-depressants, low energy

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