Listening to Prozac but hearing placebo: A meta-analysis of antidepressant medications.

2004 ◽  
pp. 303-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irving Kirsch ◽  
Guy Sapirstein
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Antidepressant Medications

scholarly journals Clinical trials of antidepressant medications are producing meaningless results

2003 ◽  
Vol 183 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Parker ◽  
Ian M. Anderson ◽  
Peter Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Antidepressant Treatment ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Antidepressant Medication ◽  
Unipolar Depression ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Antidepressant Medications ◽  
Treatment Of Depression ◽  
Randomised Controlled ◽  
The Uk

A recent alert from the UK Committee on Safety of Medicines stated that the dangers of treatment of depression with paroxetine outweigh the benefits in those under 18. Such a warning should focus our minds on the evidence on which clinical practice is based. Antidepressant treatment of depression in the under-18s has been thought to be justified because clinical trials show that it works so well in over-18s. But is that a reasonable assessment of the evidence? Kirsch et al (2002) use the analogy of ‘The Emperor's New Clothes' to describe the findings from their meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants. They conclude that antidepressant medication appears to have only a small effect on outcome over and above placebo. In this analogy psychiatry is the emperor, drug trials are the fraudsters and the deception is being revealed by a growing body of critical opinion proposing that, once methodological problems with clinical trials are taken into account, antidepressants either do not work at all or have an effect that is so small as to be clinically unimportant (Andrews, 2001; Moncrieff, 2002). A large number of randomised placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants have been carried out over the past decades, mostly funded by the pharmaceutical industry, and it is now recognised that about 50% of negative trials go unpublished (Thase, 1999). Meanwhile, unipolar depression has jumped into the top five of the world's total burden of disease, and there is an imperative need for effective and safe treatments. Do we need more randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of antidepressant medications, or has that research paradigm outlived its usefulness? In this month's debate, Professor Gordon Parker, University of New South Wales and Black Dog Institute, Australia, and Drs Ian Anderson and Peter Haddad from the University of Manchester discuss whether clinical trials for antidepressant medication produce meaningless results.

Efficacy of Acute Treatment for Geriatric Depression

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. 7-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lon S. Schneider ◽  
Jason T. Olin
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Acute Treatment ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Severity Of Illness ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Antidepressant Medications ◽  
Medical Disorders ◽  
Treatment Of Depression

The antidepressant literature for depression in late life tends to be interpreted as saying that certain antidepressant medications—e.g., nortriptyline, doxepin, fluoxetine—have fewer and milder side effects than others, whereas overall efficacy is equivalent (Plotkin et al., 1987; Rush, 1993; Salzman et al., 1995; Schneider, 1994). Further examination of this literature, however, suggests that both efficacy and side effect rates for any particular medication vary among trials, and often depend on the medications being compared, the use of placebe, the dose, and the design of the trial.In this report we review selected clinical trials, and summarize and discuss a previously published meta-analysis. Treatment recommendations from the 1991 NIH Consensus Development Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression in Late Life and from the Agency for Health Care Policy Research are discussed. Directions for fume research are suggested.Both antidepressant medications and brief structured psychotherapies have efficacy in the acute treatment of elderly depressed outpatients with major unipolar, nondelusional depression. Effective treatment for depression involves consideration of the type and severity of illness, adequate prescribing, patient education, and regular patient monitoring for compliance, symptom change, side effects, and intercurrent medical disorders, which may complicate antidepressant therapy.

The effects of low-ratio n-6/n-3 PUFA on biomarkers of inflammation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yali Wei ◽  
Yan Meng ◽  
Na Li ◽  
Qian Wang ◽  
Liyong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Fatty Acid ◽  
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ◽  
Inflammation Markers ◽  
Pufa Supplementation ◽  
Long Chain

The purpose of the systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine if low-ratio n-6/n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation affects serum inflammation markers based on current studies.

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