Researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shared two major findings:

1. Antidepressant drugs were not developed for depression. Researchers used certain drugs to manipulate the behavior of stressed animals, and then concluded (erroneously) that the drugs would be “good antidepressants.” But chronic stress does not cause the same molecular changes that depression does, making the hypothesis incorrect.

So, antidepressants were actually designed to treat stress, rather than depression — which is one reason they are so ineffective.

2. An imbalance of neurotransmitters in your brain may not trigger depressive symptoms as has long been thought. Instead, the biochemical events that lead to depression appear to start in the development and functioning of neurons. This means antidepressants focus on the effect of depression and completely miss the cause… yet another reason why they are so ineffective for most people.

Unfortunately, the lead researcher is hoping the research will “open up new routes to develop new antidepressants,” when in reality a drug solution is not the answer.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/nu-wad102309.php

Those who study depression and the drugs that treat it are concluding that antidepressants are no different than a placebo or “sugar pill”.

Placebos are widely used when studying pharmaceuticals. E.g., in a controlled clinical trial, one group will be given the real medication while another group is given a placebo in order to observe if the effects of the drug are due to the medication or to the power of suggestion.

Research has found that patients do improve on SSRIs, tricyclics, and even MAO inhibitors. This conclusion is the basis for blindly prescribing antidepressants to anyone who complains of being depressed.
When researchers compare the improvement in patients taking medication, however, with the improvement in those taking a placebo, they find that the difference is minuscule.

The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms. For patients with very severe depression, the benefit of medications over placebo is substantial.

JAMA 2010

These trials comprised 10030 depressed patients who participated in 52 antidepressant clinical trials evaluating 93 treatment arms of a new or established antidepressant. Fewer than half (48%, 45/93) of the antidepressant treatment arms showed superiority to placebo.

Int Jour of Neuropsychopharmacology

Despite the failure of prescription drugs when compared to a placebo for mild to moderate depression, the number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005. Is this increase due to an increase in the prevalence of severe depression? Of course not. Walk into a doctor’s office and complain about being depressed; most will prescribe an anti-depressant on the spot. This is mainly due to western medicines lack of a holistic approach to the body, and big pharma’s hold on our medical community and society in general.

Never doubt the power of the mind. In many cases, a person’s beliefs are as or more effective than drugs when it comes to achieving health.

Low testosterone levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of depression, according to an?Australian study.

Between 2001 and 2004, researchers at the University of Western Australia in Perth studied 3,987 males aged 71 to 89. The men provided demographic and health information and were tested for depression and cognitive difficulties. The researchers also checked the men’s testosterone levels.

The 203 men who met the criteria for depression had significantly lower total and free (not bound to proteins) testosterone levels than those who weren’t depressed. After controlling for other factors, such as cognitive scores, education level and body-mass index, the researchers concluded that men in the lowest quintile (20 percent) of free testosterone were three times more likely to have depression compared to those in the highest quintile.

The findings were published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

There is more and more evidence mounting?for?medically supervised?hormone replacement therapy.?
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