It’s a scandal! Of course antidepressants don’t work, and their makers know it! Now we have proof!

… uh, guess again, folks … the real story here isn’t entirely what you may think it is. Here’s a sample story on this revelation (this one from the New York Times):

The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.

OK, so what we have here is not a grand exposé on the utter failure of antidepressants … what we have found out, rather, is that drug companies tend to publish clinical trial results favorable to their drug.

If this surprises you, why should it? Of course companies are going to publicize what’s in their best interest to publicize! FDA review of drug efficacy generally includes even those studies whose results aren’t favorable and may not have been published, so from a regulatory point of view, this is not a problem at all.

Now, I’m already on record as saying that the widely-touted 60% efficacy of antidepressants — which is supported by a majority of studies and therefore a sound conclusion — is not sufficient; that 60% efficacy of anything would not be acceptable in most other areas of life.

But come on, people, let’s not blow this out of proportion! We haven’t exactly discovered anything new here. In fact, I suspect this is really “invented” news, extracted as it is from information made public over the last couple of years. If this is the worst news they could find, after poring through this new information for that long a time, then let’s face it, it’s not that bad!

The cold hard fact is that antidepressants work for many people. The last thing we need is yet another mass-media blitz being plastered all over the country which tells people that they don’t work. Too many mood-disorder sufferers already get no treatment at all, convinced that nothing can help them … to add to their number, this way, is a travesty.