Controversy on anti-depressants settled

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has claimed that a study on the effectiveness of anti-depressants has ‘finally puts to bed the controversy’ surrounding their use.

The findings of the study, published in the Lancet, analysed data from 522 trials involving 116,477 people, and reported that 21 common anti-depressants were all more effective at reducing symptoms of acute depression than dummy pills, although effectiveness varied between the drugs.

With 64.7 million prescriptions for the drugs in England in 2016, the study suggests that many more people could benefit from the drugs.

Dr Andrea Cipriani, lead researcher from the University of Oxford, told the BBC: "This study is the final answer to a long-standing controversy about whether anti-depressants work for depression. We found the most commonly prescribed anti-depressants work for moderate to severe depression and I think this is very good news for patients and clinicians."

Additionally, the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the study ‘finally puts to bed the controversy on anti-depressants’.

Carmine Pariante, from the college, said: "This meta-analysis finally puts to bed the controversy on anti-depressants, clearly showing that these drugs do work in lifting mood and helping most people with depression. Importantly, the paper analyses unpublished data held by pharmaceutical companies, and shows that the funding of studies by these companies does not influence the result, thus confirming that the clinical usefulness of these drugs is not affected by pharma-sponsored spin."

The most effective anti-depressants were: agomelatine, amitriptyline, escitalopram, mirtazapine and paroxetine.