Researchers at McMaster University in Canada are questioning whether widely prescribed antidepressants do more harm than good. Their study is published in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology.
An article about the study in PsychCentral quotes lead author Dr. Paul Andrews as saying: “We need to be much more cautious about the widespread use of these drugs. It’s important because millions of people are prescribed antidepressants each year, and the conventional wisdom about these drugs is that they’re safe and effective.”
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In a piece published in British newspaper The Daily Mail, psychiatrist David Healy claims pharmaceutical companies commonly use deceptive tactics to manipulate clinical trials for new drugs. As a result, Healy alleges, health regulatory agencies approve drugs that are not only ineffective, but dangerous for patients who use them.
An article published in the journal Pediatrics claims that “publication bias,” or medical journals’ tendency to publish clinical trials with a positive result, may have given physicians the false impression that certain types of antidepressants improve repetitive behaviors in autistic children such as rocking and hand-flapping.
