Antidepressants have been used for a long time in the belief that they are effective in treating depression, but studies and experiments have shown that their effectiveness is not significantly different from placebo and that they can have serious side effects. These problems have led to calls for the sale of antidepressants to be heavily regulated.
In April 2008, at a meeting of the European Association of Psychiatrists, questions were raised about the effectiveness of currently available antidepressants. Antidepressants have been a staple in pharmacies for more than 20 years, so for the psychiatric community to question them was like questioning the fact that the sun rises in the east. At the meeting, Dr. Brett Deacon, a psychoanalyst at the University of Wyoming in the United States, questioned the efficacy of antidepressants based on a number of experimental data. One of the many pieces of evidence presented was an experiment that showed that prescribing antidepressants to people with mild to moderate depression was actually no more effective than prescribing a placebo. In this trial, a numerical measure of depression was examined in patients with “very severe” depression, defined as a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score between 25 and 52. For these patients, antidepressants were more effective than placebo, but the difference was only 1.8 points on average. In fact, a difference of 1.8 points is not meaningful as a treatment effect, as waking up from a nap can increase the score by 2 points, supporting the claim that antidepressants have no or very little effect.
However, people still believe in the effectiveness of antidepressants without question and take them in large numbers. Most psychiatrists are also convinced of the effectiveness of antidepressants based on published research and clinical experience. However, I argue that antidepressants have no or very little effect, given the fact that their mechanism of action has not been scientifically validated and that their therapeutic effect is not much different from that of a placebo.
First, let’s take a look at the mechanism of action of antidepressants. Despite the advances in medicine, there is still insufficient scientific understanding of the complex nervous system that antidepressants work on. For example, the psychiatrists’ claimed mechanism of action for the antidepressant Paxil is problematic. Antidepressants contain ingredients that interfere with the reuptake of serotonin out of nerve cells. By blocking the reuptake of serotonin into neurons, they cause serotonin to accumulate within the neuron, which then activates neighboring neurons to relieve depression. Based on these facts, psychiatrists conclude that an increase in serotonin relieves depression, but this conclusion has yet to be confirmed. Instead, it“s based on the fact that blood tests of depressed patients show low levels of serotonin, and it”s claimed that increasing serotonin levels will relieve depression.
There are two problems with this conclusion. First, because serotonin plays a complex role in the brain, doctors don’t know exactly what it does and are simply assuming that serotonin reduces depression based on statistical data. This assumption is unproven and unreliable. Second, even if serotonin is effective in improving depression, there are questions about whether it is possible to maintain high concentrations of serotonin in the brain. Antidepressants increase the concentration of serotonin in neurons by preventing it from escaping out of the neuron, but some neuropsychiatrists argue that the increased serotonin concentration is reduced again by activation of the production of serotonin receptors in the neuron, meaning that the neuron has at least two ways to reduce serotonin. Based on these theories, some scholars argue that antidepressants will not alleviate depression at all. In fact, some researchers have reduced serotonin in the brain to induce depression and found no effect. This is evidence that serotonin levels don’t change due to feedback mechanisms within neurons, so it disproves the idea that antidepressants increase serotonin levels.
However, it is true that antidepressants do indeed seem to cure many depressed people. However, do antidepressants really work in the body according to the mechanisms described by psychiatrists to treat depression? According to a clinical trial by David Cohen, a professor of social work at the University of Florida, the average reduction in depression with antidepressants was 50%, while the average reduction in depression with a placebo was 40%, meaning that only 10% of patients experienced the effects of antidepressants. From the results of this experiment, we can conclude that the true effect of antidepressants is minimal, and that the placebo effect only appears to be the real effect. Furthermore, even if they do provide temporary relief from depression, it has been argued that in the long run, antidepressants can actually worsen depression or not relieve it at all.
In March 2006, the FDA analyzed 23 studies of antidepressant products and concluded that antidepressants caused suicidal thoughts in adolescents. In 2007, the FDA warned that the popular antidepressant Paxil increased the risk of suicidal thoughts in children and adolescents, as well as young adults. These and many other experimental results and statistics support the invalidity of antidepressants.
Based on these findings, I argue that antidepressants rarely have any meaningful effect as a treatment, and if they do, it’s a very small effect.
So, should we regulate the sale of antidepressants with unproven therapeutic effects? Or should they be allowed to be sold in the hope that they have some temporary placebo effect? I argue that the sale of antidepressants should be strongly regulated. The reason is that the side effects of antidepressants are serious. If antidepressants didn’t cause any harm to the human body, they could be sold in the hope of a placebo effect. However, since antidepressants are drugs that manipulate neurotransmitters, they usually have more than 20 side effects, which cause more harm than good to patients. Common side effects include sexual dysfunction, digestive problems, increased risk of bleeding, stroke, and mortality in the elderly, and impaired development in infants, which can cause more harm than good with uncertain placebo effects. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find examples of antidepressants having negative effects on the body. If you do an internet search on antidepressants, you’ll find stories of people who have been taking them for years and complain of headaches and dizziness. Some researchers argue that recurrence of depression after taking antidepressants is also a side effect of antidepressants. In October 2007 and July 2008, two studies were published in the United States and Spain that showed that antidepressants can increase gastrointestinal bleeding. In addition, the suicidal thoughts and mental instability we mentioned earlier are also side effects of antidepressants.
There are other risks associated with antidepressants: dependence and withdrawal symptoms. This is because some people take large doses of antidepressants in an attempt to control their emotions with drugs. When people who have been taking antidepressants for three or four years suddenly stop taking them, their body”s hormonal concentrations and mechanisms change, resulting in withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal from antidepressants is similar to withdrawal from other harmful substances, so you need to be very vigilant. In fact, you can find many books on how to safely withdraw from antidepressants in popular online bookstores in the United States. This shows the reality that many people don’t survive antidepressant withdrawal, and that many people suffer from it.
In addition to this, there may be other side effects of antidepressants that we don’t know about. These can be categorized as either unknown or hidden. Eli Lilly, a multinational pharmaceutical company, was accused of knowing about the side effects of its antidepressant Prozac before it was released and trying to cover them up. The British Medical Journal revealed that it was in possession of secret documents about the side effects of Lilly’s antidepressant, which included information that Prozac could cause physical instability and panic. The mass shooting by Joseph Wesbecker, who was depressed and killed many people after taking Prozac, illustrates the potential for this antidepressant to cause mental instability and panic.
We have enough evidence to know that antidepressants do not improve depression, but rather manipulate hormones, which can lead to mental and physical instability.
However, this is not well publicized, and global consumption of antidepressants is enormous. According to market research firm IMS Health, nearly 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants were filled by U.S. physicians in 2007, generating $11.9 billion in pharmaceutical company revenue. With statistics like these, it’s safe to say that many people around the world are suffering from antidepressants.
The irresponsible marketing of antidepressants due to scientific errors should be strongly regulated globally.
