A study has revealed that antidepressants are ineffective for the majority of patients.

“Depressed people can improve without chemical treatments” is the opinion of the lead researcher behind the study that has revealed antidepressants to be ineffective for the majority of patients.

The study, Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the FDA, has been carried out by leading psychologists from the University of Hull in the UK.

The psychologists used data – obtained from the clinical trials carried out before a drug is licensed – from four of the most commonly prescribed Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). The figures were examined to determine the effects experienced by patients who received antidepressants compared with patients who were given a placebo drug.

The analysis revealed that antidepressants, in comparison to the placebo drugs, did not have any significant effect for patients. Where there had initially been reports of antidepressant effectiveness, it has now been discovered that these good results had been distorted and that in fact, the patient’s response to the placebo drug had decreased, rather than their response to the antidepressant drug increasing.

Professor Irving Kirsch, from the Psychology Department at Hull and the study’s lead researcher, said: “Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit. This study raises serious issues that need to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported.”

A unique feature of the study involved the analysis of published and non-published data whereas previous analysis has only looked at published results, which may hold a certain amount of reporting bias.

The full study is published in the journal PLoS Medicine.