SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac don’t treat some of the common symptoms of depression such as insomnia, sadness and reduced concentration, researchers have discovered this week.
Up to 80 per cent of depressed people still suffer from one of the symptoms after they start taking an SSRI, say researchers from the UT Southwestern Medical Center in the US after they tracked around 4,000 people taking one of the drugs.
Depression affects around 19 million adults in the US alone, costing the nation around $83 billion a year.
The take-home message of the study, say the researchers, is that doctors need to provide a more holistic approach to depression, and be less reliant on just an SSRI to solve all the problems the condition brings.
(Source: Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2011; 31: 180).
