The Drugs Don't Work

Or at least, the anti-depressant drugs. Apparently they might have about as much impact on those with depression as placebos.

Now, this is the sort of news story that makes me want to say "yeah, and?" Of course anti-depressants are going to have an effect on those with severe depression, and are going to have a limited impact on those with milder depression, Depression is a mental, not physical, illness. It is not an illness that can be cured by pumping drugs into someone - the very best that will do is temporarily allay some of the symptoms without dealing with the root cause of the illness. As much as it pains me to say it, the new government policy of training therapists rather than advocating the prescription of drugs may be correct.

I'm an advocate (in as much as I can advocate anything, as a layman cynical of any scheme to perfect the self) of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. So instead of prescribing endless courses of prozac, how about a trained therapist challenging those with depression on the fundamental reasons why they have depression? Instead of popping pills and hoping for the best, the medical profession should be advocating a proactive approach to understanding the illness and causes of the illness, thus enabling the sufferer to deal with their own illness in their own way.

Of course, if someone is in severe depression, then anti-depressants may help. But only as part of a wider course of psychological treatment. The answer to psychological disorders is not pills and pills alone. I concur with the conclusions of Professor Irving Kirsch, who was one of the leading researchers on the project (as quoted here):

"Given these results, there seems little reason to prescrive anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit."

Ultimately, these results are a victory for the anti-psychitary movement, and offer some hpe that in the future mental illness might be treated as something more complex than just a headache or stomach upset that can be effectively countered with pills.