Antidepressants Don't Work

In the early 1990's, the medical community heralded the end of depression due to the miracle class of SSRI drugs.

Today, 25% of women are on one of these drugs, and we have the highest rates of suicide and depression of any society in world history.

Although antidepressants are regarded as effective and specific treatments, they are barely superior to placebo in randomised trials, and differences are unlikely to be clinically relevant.

The conventional disease centered understanding of drug action regards antidepressants as targeting an underlying brain process, but an alternative ‘drug-centered’ view suggests they are psychoactive substances that modify normal mental states and behavior.

These alterations, such as numbing of emotions, may reduce feelings of depression, and also create amplified placebo effects in randomized trials. Patients should be informed that there is no evidence that antidepressants work by correcting a chemical imbalance, that antidepressants have mind-altering effects, and that evidence suggests they produce no noticeable benefit compared with placebo.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6001865/