Here's depressing news

A new study published in PLoS Medicine questions the efficacy of the new generation antidepressant drugs such as fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Effexor), nefazodone (Serzone), and paroxetine (Seroxat / Paxil). The study was done in the UK. In a meta-analysis, once the unpublished studies were included, the improvement in depression among those receiving the trial drug, as compared to those receiving placebos, was not clinically significant in mildly depressed patients or even in most patients who suffer from very severe depression. "The benefit only seemed to be clinically meaningful for a small group of patients who were the most extremely depressed to start out with. This improvement seemed to come about because these patients did not respond as well as less depressed patients to placebo, rather than responding better to the drug." (News release)

The authors used the data sets from the FDA used in the clinical trials.

Note: If you go to the original article (see link above) and scroll down on the first page, there is an editor's summary in a blue box--much easier to read than the whole article.