Antidepressants double the risk of another bout of depression
People who
take an antidepressant are far more likely to suffer a recurring bout of
depression than someone who decides on a non-pharmaceutical approach.
Taking a
drug almost doubles your risk of suffering a relapse, say researchers, from the
Virginia Commonwealth University in the US and McMaster University in Canada,
after reviewing a range of studies that monitored the effectiveness of
antidepressants and placebos, or sugar pills, on groups of patients with major
depression.
Overall,
depressed people who took no drugs or were given a placebo had a 25-per-cent
likelihood of suffering a further episode in the future, whereas those who took
an antidepressant were 42-per-cent more likely to do so.
The
researchers believe the drugs interfere with the brain’s self-regulatory
processes for coping with depression, causing these processes to overcompensate
when the drug treatment stops, triggering another depressive episode.
Depression
may be a natural and beneficial process as the brain works to cope with stress
or loss, the researchers concluded (Front Psychology, 2011; 2: 159; doi:
10.3389/ fpsyg.2011.00159).