Antidepressants Don't Cure Depression

Antidepressants don't cure depression, says Dr. Joseph Mercola. He explains why the two beliefs underlying the drugs currently used to treat depression may be incorrect and suggests natural remedies to use instead.

The majority of people who take antidepressants for depression never get relief. Why? Because the cause of depression has been oversimplified, and drugs designed to treat it aim at the wrong target, according to a new study that appears to topple some strongly held beliefs about depression.

One is that stressful life events are a major cause of depression. The other is that an imbalance in neurotransmitters in the brain triggers depressive symptoms.

These beliefs were the basis for the drugs currently used to treat depression, and it appears they may both be incorrect. Read more

Drug Studies Suppressed - But Only the Negative Ones

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has urged antidepressant manufacturers not to disclose to physicians and the public that some clinical trials of the medications in children found the drugs were no better than sugar pills. Regulators suppressed the negative information on the grounds that it might scare families and physicians away from the drugs.

For at least three medications, the FDA blocked the companies' plans to reveal the negative studies on drug labels, and in one case the agency reversed a manufacturer's decision to amend its drug label to say that the drug was associated in studies with increased hostility and suicidal thinking among children.

Now the The New England Journal of Medicine reports that a majority of studies that get published about antidepressants are positive because negative studies remain unpublished. Read more