Anti-Depressants of Little Use

Here. The study itself.

1) It is done by psychologists. They have a vested interest to promote psychological methods.

2) The most severe patients were likely excluded from the trial, to avoid litigation. Left wingers intimidate drug companies into excluding severe patients. When mild patients fail to respond to drug, they get second guessed, yet again.

3) There is a trend toward greater response for severer patients, even within the narrowly mild ratings of the patients in these studies.

4) On-off experiments in individual patients were not reviewed.

5) The left bashed the use of anti-depressants by family doctors. Population studies show this increased use is among the rare effective methods to reduce the suicide rate at the population level. If family doctors get discouraged, and the suicide rate increases, these authors must resign, as well as any editor, funding reviewer, or peer reviewer. They will have been responsible for mass murder.

Timing of Treatment and Suicide Attempts

This study shows the rate of suicide attempts highest before the start of treatment, followed by the rate the first month of treatment, and declining thereafter. The type of treatment correlates with the absolute rate, likely because of a correlation with severity of depression. Thus treatment by family doctors with antidepressants had lower rates of attempts than treatment with psychotherapy.

The study also implies, the course of depression determines the rate of suicide attempts. At long periods of treatment and improvement progress, the attempt rate decreases. The study rebuts any assertion that anti-depressants cause suicide attempts.

A reasonable editorial adds perspective.