Depressed patients who are treated with antidepressants do worse in the long run

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics a new analysis discloses insights into the long term effects of antidepressant drugs. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is more often chronic or recurrent in clinical than in community samples. For example, perhaps 85 percent of patients but only 35 percent of persons in the community with MDD experience another depressive episode within 15 years. Nonetheless, active treatments including antidepressant medication or cognitive therapy reduce depressive symptoms and delay relapse compared to inactive controls. Follow-ups of treated and untreated persons in clinical trials have rarely exceeded 1-2 years, however.