The first comprehensive study to date on antidepressants has concluded that they are no more effective than a placebo, and in some cases cause suicide. The damning study, published in the Lancet, found that commonly prescribed drugs for treating depression in children and adolescents caused more damage to patients than actually treated their symptoms. Naturalblaze.com reports: Of 14 common antidepressants studied, only fluoxetine — best known under the brand name, Prozac — proved marginally more effective in treating major depression than a placebo. Alarmingly, venlafaxine, brand name Effexor, “was linked with an increased risk of engaging in suicidal thoughts or attempts” when compared to both placebo and five other medications. “The balance of risks and benefits of antidepressants for the treatment of major depression does not seem to offer a clear advantage in children and teenagers, with probably only the exception of fluoxetine,” summarized Prof. Peng Xie, study co-author from The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China. “We recommend that children and adolescents taking antidepressants should be monitored closely, regardless of the antidepressant chosen, particularly at the beginning of treatment.” However, despite such damning revelations, study authors also rebuked the pharmaceutical industry for making unbiased and thorough data available for [...]
