Given the topic of our interview today, I thought I’d include a link over to John Grohol’s excellent article, “Efficacy of Antidepressants” where he analyzes the studies published last year that try to shake the efficacy and usefulness of modern antidepressant medications. Especially intriguing to me were the recommendations that those commenting on the studies came up with to “foster greater communication” (Grohol’s words) in the drug trial process. Writes Grohol:

We think the overall efficacy of antidepressants will remain open to debate by many within the field for some years to come. It is likely the efficacy of such drugs was overstated in the original FDA clinical trials, while other independently-funded research (such as the STAR*D trial) shows that taking antidepressants eventually results in a 67% remission rate (which required changing medications and sticking with the treatment over the long-term). 

There is a definite need moving forward in drug research to be far more open and transparent in all drug trials. Clinicaltrials.gov is a good start, but our efforts shouldn’t stop with simple clinical trials registration. We need to ensure that all studies — even the negative ones — eventually find a way to be published.

To read the rest of this important article, click here.

To read more Beyond Blue, go to http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.

To subscribe to “Beyond Blue” click here.