Thursday 28 February 2008

Depressing news

This is how my friend Dr Rant views the recent media reports on antidepressants:

Researchers from Hull University are claiming that antidepressants only work for patients who are severely depressed.

Whilst Dr Rant is perfectly willing to believe that placebo is just as good as antidepressants for mild to moderate depression, I think we do need to point out a glaring problem with this research. It's from Hull. I mean, have you been to Hull? ****, if I lived in Hull I'd be depressed and I don't think antidepressants would help. The 1960s didn't happen in Hull until about 1985.

Here's a suggestion: next time compare the effects on depression of taking placebo against simply moving to somewhere that isn't Hull.

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